


The Bonds of Matrimony

by TheRedPoet



Category: The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Genre: BDSM, F/F, F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-19 07:53:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 22,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29996226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRedPoet/pseuds/TheRedPoet
Summary: In the wake The Battle for Chicago, Harry Dresden and Lara Raith are set to be married. The dubious honor of arranging all of the details falls to Molly Carpenter. Who's feeling just fantastic about all of it.
Relationships: Harry Dresden/Lara Raith, Harry Dresden/Molly Carpenter/Lara Raith, Molly Carpenter/Lara Raith
Comments: 18
Kudos: 29





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was sort of a combination of two separate ideas. The first was just a fic that sort of went into the limits of the mantle of the Winter Lady in as Fae a way as possible. The second was sort of a comedy where Molly suffers through being Harry's and Lara's wedding planner. It'll lean more heavily into the first.

It’s usually a good idea to do what your boss says when they tell you to do it. I mean, there’s bills to pay, after all, and that student debt isn’t going to pay itself. But in the end, if worse comes to worse, you can always quit. When your boss is a literal demigod, that’s not so much an option. I guess I could’ve started a Faerie union, but I had a feeling Mab would’ve been even less fond of that idea than any of the corporate overlords.

Yeah… I can see if that’s not easy to identify with. Let me try again. You know that guy or gal you’ve been in love with since forever? The one who doesn’t seem to notice you? Yeah. That one. Now, imagine you have to watch him marry a woman who decidedly isn’t you, but also better in pretty much every category. 

Prettier? Check. 

Smarter? Check.

Able to give him all the things you know damn well he wants and that you cannot ever give him? Check, check and fucking check.

Now imagine that boss from before, the one who’s too scary to say no to, telling you congratulations, you’re going to be the one preparing their wedding and for a kicker, you’ll be living with them, too.

Sound like fun? No?

Welcome to my life.

I yawned and rubbed at my eyes as I left my room at Chateau Raith. I guess I should clarify. As I walked into one of the kitchens - note the plural - of Chateau Raith. Calling Lara’s home a Chateau wasn’t just colorful realtor-talk, either. It was pretty much a castle that you’d need siege equipment (or Harry Dresden on a bad day) to take down. Each wing was sectioned off from the other and could be locked down, and so each was complete with its own bedroom, guestroom, gym, bath, swimming pool… You get the point. There was a lot of it.

The kitchen was the kind you’d see on a cooking show, with a big central counter for all your food preparation needs - or in Lara’s case - a place where your cooks set out covered trays of whatever you wanted that particular morning. I would’ve been grumpier about it all, but I could smell pancakes and maple syrup and my stomach growled hungrily.

Lara Raith was already up, laying on one of those reclining sofas, a cup of coffee in one hand and a newspaper in another. She wasn’t wearing any make-up and her hair was tousled from sleep, but she was still heart wrenchingly beautiful and elegant. She wore a sleek white robe, just a touch translucent, and I looked away from her before I had confusing thoughts, piling my plate high with pancakes and dunking them in syrup.

“Good morning, Molly,” Lara said, looking up from her reading for a moment.

“Fuck right off, you stupid sexy vampire harlot,” I thought to myself, but smiled in return, and said. “Morning, Lara. Anything going on in the world?”

Lara glanced down at the paper as if to check. “A certain young senator seems to have overstepped slightly in his fundraising ambitions.”

I chewed thoughtfully at my pancakes. They were perfect and nowhere near as good as mom’s. “Would this be the same senator you’re meeting at 4 o’clock tomorrow?”

Lara smirked. “The very same.”

I looked down at my own itinerary, already laid out on the table by the woman Lara insisted was my assistant, to see what I would be occupying my precious time with today. Seating arrangements for the wedding. Lovely.

It was important work, honestly. After the battle for Chicago, things were tense in the supernatural world. Mab wanted to show strength and unity. Her ploy to do that was the wedding between Harry and Lara. It went without saying that some people weren’t very happy and wanted to piss on their parade… which is how I’d ended up here, trying to eat breakfast without getting caught looking at Lara’s legs.

The door to Lara’s bedroom opened, closed, and Harry stepped out of there. Like Lara, his hair was an absolute mess. Though that was how it usually looked. He stretched up onto the tips of his toes and I found my attention drawn to his lean, broad shouldered frame. The mantle of the Winter Lady came with some perks. Like being able to chow down on half your recommended daily caloric intake’s worth of pancakes every morning, or not having to deal with your period, or being able to google things. But there were definite downsides, too. Like the pretty much constant need to hump just about anyone good-looking.

It wasn’t made any easier by Harry walking up to me, smelling of last night’s cologne and a touch of sweat. He put his hand on my shoulder and leaned over to spear a forkful of pancakes off my plate.

“Morning, Molls,” he said, giving my shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Sleep okay?”

“Better than yesterday.”

“That’s good.”

He headed off to grab himself a cup of coffee and some food, then walked over to sit down with Lara, handing her a little plate of bacon and eggs. She gave him an annoyed look that wasn’t really annoyed, and they began to talk. Just stupid small-talk. Some playful arguing. Couple stuff. They weren’t married yet, but as weird as it would’ve seemed a year ago, it might just work out. I was happy for him. See how I’m smiling and totally not dying on the inside? That’s how happy I am.

I excused myself and left for the little room at one corner of the Chateau where my office was. Mab hadn’t put me here for fun. There was a good reason. I settled in and started trying to settle half the supernatural world in the same building, cross-referencing grudges, plots so that we didn’t get any more wars going. It was kind of like arranging all the Jawas for Risk-night to avoid pinching and throwing. Ferrovax went in one corner. Odin in the other. Two pillars between the two to break line of sight just in case. If we were lucky, they might not even notice the other was there. I added a note to improve the sprinkler system just in case.

Harry clearly felt guilty about forgetting me at breakfast because when he visited an hour after lunch with a box of donuts, he hadn’t even taken the jelly. I took it and had no regrets. He hesitated in the door for a moment. I think he wondered if it was time to have some sort of equivalent of the “it’s not your fault” talk from Good Will Hunting and that I’d have a good cry and then everything would be better. I pretended not to notice and he left me to keep on working.

I spent stared at that stupid guest list until I was cross-eyed. Someone on that list wanted to break this wedding up. Several someones, probably, and I wasn’t about to let them. I had a little over a month to figure it out and I refused to fail… but maybe I’d done enough for one day. The seating was done, which meant that nobody was going to drop a magic nuke during the wedding. Hopefully.

***

It was late by the time I was done that night and I headed straight for bed. I debated a quick shower, but ended up face planting in bed right after I’d brushed my teeth. I closed my eyes and tried to force myself to relax and let sleep take me. Please, please, let it take me before… But it was too late. I could already feel it. It began as a stirring in the air. Light. Subtle. The sort of thing I probably wouldn’t have noticed most of the time. Now, I did, because I knew what followed.

Because the Raiths were… Well, Raiths, the guest room was right next to the main bedroom, with a door joining them. That door could be locked from both sides and the walls weren’t thin, but I could hear something like a laugh from the other side. Was I imagining things? Possibly. I wouldn’t put it past the events of the last two weeks driving me insane.

What I didn’t imagine was the power in the air. Fueled by Equally powerful emotions. It didn’t take a lot of guesswork to figure out what kind. I squeezed my eyes shut as it washed over me. Lust. With a healthy dose of affection to go along with it. Another soft laugh and this time I hadn’t imagined it. Nor did I imagine the way that laugh cut off into a throaty, pleased sound.

I tried every trick in the book, learned over years and years of work with Harry to master myself and my magic. Meditation, breathing exercises, the whole shebang. Nothing worked. My heart began to beat faster.

I’d started noticing it the second week. Harry and Lara weren’t just sharing the bedroom, like I’d tried to delude myself into. They were… fucking. Worse, though, was that the ambient emotions they were generating were going straight through the wall and there weren’t any kind of earplugs for that stuff. I bit my bottom lip and crossed my legs underneath the blankets, feeling the heat there.

I stared up at the ceiling. I wouldn’t. I hadn’t lowered myself to it before and I wouldn’t now. I refused. Another pulse of lust washed over me and I whimpered as it tingled across my skin, running like little jolts of lightning down my belly, up my legs, settling between my thighs as a deep, throbbing need.

I couldn’t take this. I needed to cool down.

Fortunately, there was an ensuite bathroom. It’d have to do. I stripped out of my pyjamas, throwing my panties straight into the hamper, and stepped into the shower. Then I turned the water down as cold as it could possibly go. I sat there, not shivering, not even freezing, and stared blankly at the door. Through it and another wall, the man I loved, the man I’d loved since I was too young to really understand what that even meant, was fucking a centuries old monster. A confusingly attractive, charming monster, but still a monster… and here I sat, in the cold, alone. I felt tears sting at my eyes and blinked furiously, willing them away. The low, throbbing pulse between my legs continued unabated, despite everything.

This was almost like that moment, almost a damn decade ago, when I’d decided it was a great idea to seduce Harry. I’d sat in front of him exposed, vulnerable, and he’d dunked me in ice water. Leaving me shivering, thoroughly humiliated, and in my place. I shuddered.

I used my power to turn the water into slush, and it still didn’t quench the need burning through me. It was worse than being 17 again, seriously, but at least I didn’t have to do my own laundry now to avoid explaining to mom why I went through so many more pairs of underwear and why that coincided with my lessons with Harry.

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. It just wasn’t working.

I clenched my fists and bit down on a scream of pure frustration. I stalked out of the shower, toweled off, and walked back into my room without picking up my pyjamas.

I slipped under the sheets and rolled over on my stomach, sticking my hands under the pillow. My nipples brushed the silken fabric of the bedsheets and I whimpered into the pillow. It wasn’t fair. It just… wasn’t fair.

I crossed my legs and squeezed them together, feeling the hot smear of slick along my thighs as I did. Harry and Lara were still at it. I could feel the energy building in the air. I could hear the occasional moan or grunt. 

I closed my eyes and tried to relax, to calm my breathing. I could take a moment to sneak off tomorrow and get myself off. Not that it’d help that much, but maybe I’d get a few hours of sanity afterwards. I just had to fall asleep.

But I didn’t fall asleep. I twisted and turned. Lara moaned again and I shuddered, pressing myself down on the mattress. The sheets would have to go in the morning, too. Moving did take some of the edge off, so I rocked forward again and again, squeezing my thighs together as I did. It felt unreasonably good and I knew it was dangerous, but as long as I kept it like this, kept my hands from wandering, it wouldn’t be so bad. I wasn’t touching myself, not really. I was just distracting myself while I waited for them to finish.

It wouldn’t be far off, now. I could feel it building. An almost imperceptible thrum in the air, rushing over me like a gentle breeze, leaving a glorious tingling sensation in its wake, stronger and stronger, until it all burst apart.

Lara cried out - Harry’s name by the sounds of things, and the familiar sensation of her orgasm surged into me, hitting me with a weaker echo of the same, making me cry out helplessly into my pillow. It wasn’t enough. I needed more. I desperately, hopelessly, ached for it. I squeezed my thighs hard as I felt myself clench on nothing, wishing desperately that I had a toy inside of me, or better yet, Harry. Just a little more, just a little longer. It’d take me half the damn night to calm down, but I could do it. I could hold on.

Then Harry grunted and I could feel his climax hit me. It was different from Lara’s, I guess because he’s a guy, but that didn’t make it feel worse. It wasn’t just getting hit with the feeling, but the knowledge that just on the other side of the wall, Harry was getting off. Coming. I could feel it - the fullness of him inside of me, his last, ragged thrusts, him coming inside of me, filling me up-

I rocked forward, squeezing my thighs on the sudden surge of raw, molten need, but it was suddenly too much. I was going to come. Panic struck me.

No. No, no, no. I couldn’t. I mustn’t. It was so wrong. I tried to stop moving, but it was too late.

Shit. Oh shit.

Heat washed over me, set me ablaze, consumed me.

I couldn’t hold it.

I cried out raggedly into my pillow as the orgasm hit me like a frickin’ wrecking ball. My whole body seized up, leaving me gasping for breath, desperately grinding down on the bed to chase every last drop of pleasure.

The aftermath left me feeling hollowed out and lethargic. The shame would come, I knew, but probably not until the morning. I rolled over to the other side of the bed, away from the wet patch, and closed my eyes.

A thought nudged at me, only barely registering, and I was too tired, too wrung out to care. If I could feel the two of them getting off, then Lara Raith, sex vampire extraordinaire, could definitely feel it when I did, too.

Shit.

Tomorrow morning just might be really, really awkward.


	2. Chapter 2

I felt good when I woke up the next morning. For a little while. I burrowed deeper under the covers, enjoying the feeling of the silk against my naked skin. Then the memories hit me. Harry and Lara. The sounds, the sensations and… yeah. Woops?

I considered staying in bed… forever. It worked for Sleeping Beauty, right? Or was that one of the stories that was really dark in the original Grimm Brother’s version and that DIsney prettied up later?

For a while, I lay there. I couldn’t put it off forever, though. Better to rip the band-aid off. I showered and got dressed, grabbing a pair of sweatpants (the kind that hung low on my hips and made my butt look good), a t-shirt I’d stolen off Harry ages ago when it had tragically - and definitely accidentally - shrunk in the wash. Then I went out to meet my fate.

Lara and Harry were already up by the time I got to the kitchen. I forced myself not to look away and drew up a subtle glamour to cover my blush. It might at least fool Harry. Then I walked up and grabbed some food for myself like nothing was wrong. There was something wrong, though. There wasn’t any getting away from that. 

As I poured myself a glass of orange juice, I caught Lara looking at me. She smiled, slow and sensual, teeth grazing her bottom lip for the briefest moment. Her gaze was direct and left no doubt whatsoever. She knew exactly what had happened last night. She finished off her cup of coffee and set it in the sink. She kissed Harry’s cheek, like she was a housewife in the 50s or something, and then she came up behind me, setting her hand gently on my shoulder as if concerned. I could feel the cool, soft press of her breasts against my back, and my mouth went dry all of a sudden.

“Did you sleep well last night, Molly?” She asked.

She sounded concerned, but looking up, I saw her smirk. 

“Better than the night before,” I said.

She nodded along. Sympathetic. Understanding… and I could feel her nipples get hard. The bitch. I tried my best to ignore the firm press on them against my shoulder blades, which wasn’t easy, cos it felt really, really nice just to have anyone touch me. Even if it happened to be Lara frickin’ Raith. I guess that should tell you how bad things were.

“I’m glad to hear that you’re settling in. We’re both very happy to have you here. Do take care of Harry today.”

Harry snorted and with another gentle squeeze, Lara left us alone in the kitchen once more. I kept focused on my breakfast, even though I didn’t really have much of an appetite for once. I couldn’t look at Harry, glamour or no glamour, so I kept staring and stubbornly poking at my food.

“Ready to make some magic happen, Molly?” He gave his fingers a dramatic waggle, like a stage magician about to yoink a bunny out of a hat.

I found myself smiling despite everything. “If it gets me out of more party planning.”

“I hear ya,” he said. “If I need to sit through one more meeting, I might start actually turning people into frogs.”

“You told me you couldn’t do that.”

“I’d learn.”

I stole a slice of bacon off his plate. It was cold, but it tasted of victory. Harry scowled.

“Hey.”

I looked over his way. “I’m your boss, Harry. What’re you going to do about it, eh?”

He grinned. He looked happy. I finished my breakfast and felt better about everything. Lara clearly hadn’t told him. That was something.

“Are you ready?” Harry asked.

I downed a cup of coffee. It was piping hot, but it turned a more reasonable temperature in my mouth, and Harry gave me an impressed look when I did.

“Yup. Just let me get my gear.”

I set my cup in the sink, filling it up with hot water and some soap, because I just knew that mom would manifest the ability to teleport just to appear and start chewing me out for being a slob if I didn’t. 

I returned to my room and got my stuff. I thought about it for a moment… and then slipped out of my bra. It wasn’t like I needed to worry about my back hurting anymore and Harry usually couldn’t help glancing when I went without it. Was that a stupid, shallow and silly thing to do? Absolutely. But I did it anyway.

I was just about to leave when I noticed something. The door between the main room and the guest room was slightly ajar. Maybe the housekeepers had left it like that? But no. They weren’t around now, and my room was just as much of a mess as when I’d left it. Someone had purposefully walked into my room, then Lara’s, just to open that door and leave it like that. Something was up. Had Lara done that? Why?

Did she mean for me to watch?

The thought made me feel dirty and excited at the same time. I took a step towards the door, then stopped. Maybe it was the maids. They’d close it later, if that was the case. Harry was waiting.

I left the door open and went out to meet him.

***

The Dresden-Raith wedding was big news in the supernatural world. Most of the major players were invited and a lot of the smaller ones were trying to get themselves on the list. But since Mab’s standing depended on the success of this alliance, that meant a lot was at stake, and we’d seen a year ago with Ethniu just how messed up things could get if there were gatecrashers. So, because I didn’t want a Red Wedding happening, Harry and I set up wards. Lots, and lots, and lots of wards.

We began at the gates leading into the property and began to walk around it… and walk some more, and some more. Some of the terrain was a bit bumpy. There was some jiggling. Harry’s gaze strayed once or twice. He’d noticed. I felt a little bit better… and yes, I’m aware of how vain that is.

Maybe I was turning to the Dark Side of The Rack.

There was a lot of land between the walls and the house, and we’d decided to ward it all just to be sure. So, every hundred yards or so, we buried a working in stone, a little chip of silver, taken from a piece kept in the house that we’d use for a base. It gave us a lot of time to talk. Harry started us off.

“I know you hate it when I ask you this, and I know you can take of yourself-” I rolled my eyes at Harry, and he smiled as he continued. “But I just wanted to know how you’re feeling. You know, with everything.”

I shrugged. “A thousand thoughts and then some.”

“I don’t even know what that means.”

“That may or may not have been the point.”

He glared playfully. “I doth think thou speaketh a load of bullshit.”

I laughed. It felt amazing. Like back in the day, when he’d taken me for hikes out of town to work on some obscure, probable to explode, kind of magic.

“I’m… It’s not easy. Some things are better than others, but I’m getting used to it.”

He nodded, seeming to be pleased with the straight answer. As straight as I could give it to him, all things considered.

“What about Lara? Is she treating you alright?”

I gave him a look. “You make it sound like she’s the wicked stepmom.”

“I resent that. I think.”

“She’s fine, Harry. She’s not done anything wrong by me. She’s been… a good host.”

He winced at the phrasing. “You’ll tell me if that changes, right?”

“And you’ll do what? Cancel the wedding?”

“I meant I’d talk to her. I’m not sure if I can cancel this, since Mab’s dead set on it, but don’t ever think you’re less important than Lara, Molls. If it comes down to it, I’ll always pick you first.”

He put hand on my shoulder and I tried to wrestle with a whole bunch of conflicting feelings. Why did he have to be such a nice fucking guy? Why couldn’t he see what I wanted from him? And why, oh why, was even this turning me on?

“How’re you dealing with-” I considered not asking, but decided it needed to be said. “With Murphy.”

Harry stopped dead in his tracks. I could feel the sudden stab of pain. The surge of rage. It wasn’t aimed at me, but yikes. He was silent for a long time, until he’d collected himself and gotten himself under control again.

“I’ll get over it,” he said. “I’ll get over it. Some day.”

I took his hand and squeezed. He squeezed back gently, letting some of the tension out. I looked up at him. I wanted to hug him, kiss him, make him forget everything that had happened over all the years, but I knew I couldn’t. Knew I mustn’t. I’d tried and I’d failed. I had to accept that with some grace. So I steered the subject to a safe, nostalgic subject from before everything had collapsed, and we spent most of the rest of the day walking, talking and having fun. For a while, I almost forgot that everything had changed.

***

By the time we returned to the Chateau, night was falling, and I was exhausted. Not physically. It took a hell of a lot more for that, these days. Mentally and emotionally, though? I just wanted to sleep forever. We had a bit of dinner and then Lara dragged Harry off to their room. He looked like he was about to protest, but ended up going with her.

With the excitement of the day I’d almost forgotten that morning. Almost. Then I got back to my room, dimly lit with a few lamps scattered across it, and saw the door. It was still open. Just barely, but it was. I hesitated in the middle of the room. Then I purposefully steered my steps towards the bathroom and got myself ready for bed. I turned off all the lights, ignoring the sounds from the other room, and slipped under the sheets.

They were just talking, but now I could hear what they were talking about and… yikes.

“I’ve been picturing you inside me all day,” Lara purred.

I felt heat rise and creep up my cheeks.

“Really?” Harry asked, his voice dark and rough. “Tell me.”

“Do you remember when you visited me in the office?”

Harry chuckled. “Your secretary still won’t look me in the eye, but yeah. I remember.”

Lara went into a very, very detailed description and I tried my hardest to sink through the mattress, and hopefully the floor after that. I couldn’t help but to follow her every word or imagining the vivid picture she painted.

Harry pulling her out of her chair. I bit my lip.

Shoving her up onto the desk. I shifted uncomfortably where I lay, rubbing my thighs together.

Pushing her skirt up. My fingers twitched and I squeezed them into a fist.

Yanking her underwear down. My fingers betrayed me, brushing gently along the plane of my stomach, and leaving me shivering.

Pulling his own pants down. My hand trailed lower and lower in a gentle spiral.

Entering her. I brushed against my underwear.

Fucking her hard. My fingers slipped underneath the fabric, and - oh.

My hips bucked up against my fingers at the first brush along my clit and I only barely managed to stifle a moan as the story went on and on. I had to stop. I had to. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to hold back, and I didn’t feel confident that I’d be able to keep quiet.

I glanced at the door. I could hear something more. Movement. Soft, wordless noises. I needed to close it. Needed not to hear any more. I pushed the covers aside and got up, walking carefully to the door. My fingers closed on the handle. Just a gentle push…

The room inside was gently lit and I could see Harry and Lara. She sat astride Harry’s waist, blocking the view of anything but his legs, which dangled off the bed. She was naked and I found myself watching the way her dark hair fell along her back, shimmering in the candlelight. Her hand moved between her thighs and she raised her hips slightly, adjusting. Then she sank down, letting out a soft, throaty sound. She’d just guided him inside of her.

I let go of the door handle.

Lara began to move and I stared, eyes locked on her ass moving up and down. I could see him every so often, the slick length of him. I wondered what it felt like. Being on top of him. Feeling him. Moving with him and having him move with me. Finding a rhythm together.

I didn’t really register making a conscious choice to do it, but before I knew it, I’d slipped a hand down my underwear. I’d sunk down on my knees on the hardwood floor, hips rolling forwards, grinding against my fingers and slowly easing one inside. It felt obscenely good.

I couldn’t believe I was doing this. It was pathetic. I was pathetic. I was watching the guy I loved being screwed by his fiance and I was getting off on it. Seriously, how much lower could I go? I was one step away from getting my own Radiohead soundtrack.

Lara moaned and I snapped out of it. She threw her head back and sped up. Harry’s hands roamed up her chest, down along her hips, and then settled on her ass. He gave it a rough squeeze. I really couldn’t blame him.

I could feel my heart thundering in my chest. I could hear how wet I was as I touched myself. I had no idea how Harry and Lara didn’t. I tried to keep quiet, pressing my lips together, but little furtive noises slipped anyways, and I finally had to slap a hand across my mouth just to keep quiet.

I could feel myself get close. I’d barely started and already, I was nearly there. I was going to come watching the two of them. It was wrong - so wrong. What was I doing? Doubt hit me and I could feel myself sliding back off that plateau I’d been so close to. Then Harry made a low, strangled sound. I could see him move against Lara, thrusting his hips up against her, I could feel the desperate, ravenous need surge through him. Then he was coming and I yelped against my hand as I came right along with him. My vision blurred and I fell forward. I caught myself on one hand, gasping quietly, hips still rolling against my hand, then slowly melted into a puddle on the floor.

I could hear Lara make a low, throaty sound from the next room, and aftershocks left me trembling all over, all over again, as she came. I lay there for a few moments, stunned, and then I realised where I was. I peered into the room and slowly, slowly began to ease the door shut. But not before I caught Lara glance over her shoulder and look straight at me.

I locked the door and sank back down on the floor. Shit. She’d definitely caught me now. What was I going to do? I considered opening a Way into the Nevernever, maybe fleeing to Arctis Tor, and never coming back. I made my way towards my closet and really, really considered it. Then I heard a soft knock on the door.

It opened to reveal Lara. She was wearing Dresden’s dress shirt with two of the top buttons undone, baring a generous swath of milky white skin. She was tall enough that the shirt fell to her upper thighs and it made for one very distracting sight.

“Molly,” Lara said. “May I come in?”

I swallowed. “It’s your house.”

She smiled. “And your room. I’d hate to intrude on your… privacy.”

“Oh. Uh.” Come on, Molly. You’re a faerie frickin’ Queen. Get yourself together. “Okay.”

Smooth.

“Thank you,” Lara said.

She walked inside and looked around, as if curious to see what I’d done with the place. She seemed perfectly at ease, and not as though she’d just caught me watching her fuck her fiance, and coming all over my fingers while I did it.

She walked all the way up to me… and then kept walking. I took a step back. She kept coming. I took another step back, and another, until I found my shoulder blades up against the wall. Lara paused, then, a few inches left between us.

“Did you enjoy yourself?” she asked.

I glanced at her eyes. The periwinkle blue in her grey eyes had faded and there was a suggestion of silvery flecks now. Her hunger might be fed, but it wasn’t gone.

“I-” The words got stuck in my throat. Whatever they’d been.

“Yes?”

I reached for Winter, seeking comfort in the cold implacable power. “I enjoy a great many things,” I said, managing to sound detached.

Lara stepped a little closer. “I’m sure you do, maid of winter, but I was referring to something very specific.”

“Are you referring to how nice the bed is?” I asked.

She just smiled wider, edging just a bit closer. “I can smell how wet you are, Molly.”

Her finger brushed my thigh and I shivered violently. “What do you want?”

“An honest answer. Did you enjoy watching?”

My cheeks felt like they were on fire. My legs trembled. “Obviously.”

She leaned in close. Her silky dark curls brushed against my cheek and my lips as she whispered into my ear. “Did you come?”

“I thought you could tell.”

“I can, but I want you to say it.”

I swallowed. I could feel her bare thigh brush mine. I could feel her eager breathing tickling along the shell of my ear. My voice came out feeble, almost like a whimper. “Yes. I came.”

She stroked my cheek. “Good. Show me how you did it.”

I stared at her for a moment. Was she serious? She had to be screwing with me. Any moment now, Harry was coming to poke his head through the door and let me know this was all a big ol’ joke.

A moment passed. Then another. Lara’s gaze didn’t falter and I felt myself shrinking under it.

“I… I was on my knees. Grinding against my fingers.”

Lara nodded. “Then get down on your knees.”

I don’t know why I did it. I just did. I don’t know why it felt so right. It just did.

A shiver ran down along my body as I pushed a hand back down into my underwear. They were sticking to my skin and I almost hoped Lara couldn’t tell just how badly she was getting to me. I looked up at Lara. She caught me and I could see the subtle play of muscle in her legs as she parted her thighs just a little. She had a knife strapped to one thigh, but she wasn’t wearing anything else under that shirt. I whimpered, pressing a finger firmly against my clit.

“You look gorgeous on your knees,” Lara said, eyes locked on me.

“I think you would, too,” I shot back.

She actually smiled at that. “Mouthy. All the better.”

“Like master, like apprentice, I guess.”

“Ah yes. Your master. I do wonder what Harry would’ve thought if he’d known. If he found out his little darling apprentice watched him. If he found out she got soaking wet watching him fuck another woman… if he could see you on your knees, fingers deep inside your cunt.”

I should’ve been mortified. No, I was mortified, but it should’ve ruined this. It just made it better. I pictured it. I couldn’t help it. Harry standing beside her, watching me touch myself, maybe wrapping his arms around Lara all the while I sat at their feet. I whimpered. I couldn’t help it. I covered my mouth again, but Lara’s hand intercepted mine.

“No,” she said firmly. “You’ll be as loud as you want to be. Harry is fast asleep. Scream for me, if you want.”

I moaned again, bucking against my hand, forcing my fingers deep. My clit throbbed and it was so sensitive I could barely touch it. Each brush of my drenched fingers sent a bolt of pleasure through me.

“Tell me when you’re close,” Lara said.

“I’m close- close already,” I managed. The muscles in my stomach spasmed as the pleasure seared through me and I hunched forward. I was almost down on my hands and knees at Lara’s feet, as if in worship, and-

“I’m coming,” I croaked.

I’m pretty sure I cried out. I’m pretty sure I was really loud. I’m pretty sure it was really, really mortifying, but I didn’t care. I thought back on the moment when Harry came inside of Lara, how his hips bucked up against hers, how he held her tight. I pushed my fingers deep inside and moaned as I clenched down on them, riding them through wave after wave of my climax.

“Molly,” Lara said, and her voice was soft now. Almost disconcertingly so. “How do you feel?”

She’d settled next to me. I blinked. I didn’t really know.

“Like the bed’s too far to walk to… that I might sleep here on the floor.”

The corner of her mouth turned up for a moment, then she looked serious again. “Can I hold you?”

I frowned. “What?”

“Do you want me to hold you?”

I did. I didn’t know how to say it. I managed to nod. Lara moved in to sit down behind me, back to the wall, and I settled between her legs. Her arms wrapped around me from behind, gently pulling me back against her chest. Comforting, but not constricting. I don’t know what the hell was happening, but I almost started crying then and there. My throat felt tight and swallowed, then blinked the tears out of my eyes.

“What’re you doing?” I asked, voice raw.

Lara stroked my hair. “Aftercare. You truly haven’t done this before, have you?”

“Sex?”

She sighed and gave me a squeeze. I managed to relax a little and lay my head back against her shoulders. It was very, very weird, but not in a bad way. “That’s not quite what I was referring to, but I suppose it’s as good a point to start on as any.”

We stayed like that for a while, talking. I don’t know how long, because I’m pretty sure I fell asleep in Lara’s arms.


	3. Chapter 3

The next day, Lara took us to Milan. She didn’t take us to any tourist trap, either. Pretty much all the stores looked like the kind that would’ve sneered at Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman and sent her back to Richard Gere.

“One last thing before I go,” Harry said, looking very, very serious. “Just so we’re clear. Anything you decide to buy here, you carry home yourselves. I’m not helping. At all.”

I exchanged a look with Lara. She winked at me and then gave Harry a flirty little smile. 

“What if I say pretty please?” she asked.

I had to give Harry some credit for not melting beneath the look Lara gave him. “Then I’ll feel very bad... about still refusing to carry your bags.”

Lara shifted to an almost girlish pout, and shifted her gaze to me. “And here I’d thought you’d sworn to serve your Queen. In any capacity she might require.”

My mind may have gone places. I’m not telling you where.

Harry just smiled. “Have fun.”

I cast a side-ways glance at Lara. Yeah. This was going to be… fun.

Harry left and I squirmed in place. For a little while, Lara seemed happy to let me. Then she lay an arm around my shoulder and led me into the store.

“I believe it might be best to clear the air,” Lara said lightly. “Shall we?”

I gave her a flat stare. “What about?”

Lara seemed utterly unperturbed. “You know what it’s about.”

It was difficult to shake the image of her standing imperiously above me, dressed in Harry’s shirt, smelling of him, dripping of his- I winced. I’d hoped to forget, but I’d known that wasn’t going to happen. My voice grew cold. “What do you want of me?”

A woman was approaching us from the counter, with a bland professional smile that turned into something genuine when she got a closer look. She was in her early forties, with silver shooting through jet black hair and the cut of her clothes hid a few pounds, but they did it well. Lara watched her, then glanced at me, shrugging.

“Honesty. We can make it an even exchange if that is simpler for you. A question for question.”

I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at her. “Are you asking to play a game of truth or dare with me?”

Her gorgeous full mouth turned up into a small smile, but the shopkeeper was coming up to us, so it might’ve been for her benefit. 

“Isabella,” Lara said, and embraced the woman.

“Lara!”

They kissed one another’s cheeks, as one apparently did here, and exchanged a smattering of Italian that I couldn’t follow very well. There was quite a bit of transfer from the Latin Harry had forced me to learn, but it was just going by too quickly. When they finally turned to me I was a little lost.

“This is Molly,” Lara said. “Molly, this is Isabella. She’s an old friend.”

“Old being the word. If only we all could age like you, Lara.” She turned to me, smiling warmly. “Mi bella. It is a pleasure.”

Isabella grabbed me by the shoulders and kissed me on both cheeks, like she had with Lara. Seriously. What the hell, Europe?

The words “likewise” sat on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn’t get them out. I bit down on a curse and instead said: “You’re too kind.”

That was definitely true. If not in the sense it implied.

“I thought I might take some time and browse,” Lara said, laying a hand on my shoulder in a fond (and uncomfortably intimate and suggestive gesture.) “Do you have anything new and interesting?”

Isabella shook her head. “I am offended you even have to ask. Come. I will show you.”

We loaded up on a bunch of stuff and Isabella went to deal with another customer while Lara guided me to the changing rooms. I’d begun to hope maybe she’d forgotten our conversation from before, but no dice.

“Do you want to ask the first question, or shall I?” Lara asked.

The changing room wasn’t one of the little two-foot cubicles you get in a store. It was a little room in of itself, with several mirrors, a bench and, I shit you not, a fridge and an ice machine. Lara decided to pour some drinks and I didn’t mind at all. If we were going to have this conversation, I needed all the liquid courage there was, and then some.

“I never agreed to any questions,” I said. “You assume a lot.”

“So I do,” Lara said. “It’s simply an offer. An opportunity you may take, or that you may pass on. As you did last night.”

I found myself biting my bottom lip. “Shoot.”

“How long have you loved Dresden?”

Well, shit. There we were. Like the best lawyers, Lara usually didn’t ask questions unless she already knew the answer.

“Maybe ten years. I don’t know when I fell in love with him - really fell in love with him - but it’s something like that.”

I gritted my teeth and looked away from her pitying smile. Well… if she wanted to play hardball, I could do that. I could ask her a question she absolutely wouldn’t answer. “Do you love him?”

“No,” Lara said, without even hesitating. “But I’m fond of him. Perhaps some day. Stranger things have happened.”

So… That backfired. It got worse. Lara, I guess deciding that she hadn’t gotten me unbalanced as it was, began to get undressed. She wore a nice little summer dress, modest for her, which meant a couple of inches above the knee. Underneath, she actually did wear underwear, shocker. Less of a shocker, it was white, and lacy, and slightly translucent in all the right places.

Before becoming the winter lady, I’d never really given women much thought in… well, that sense. Or maybe I should say, before Lara and becoming the Winter Lady, I hadn’t thought that much about women. Now? There were thoughts. Confusing thoughts. The past two days hadn’t helped, either. Our eyes met in one of the mirrors and she looked decidedly smug as I looked away.

“Has anything ever happened between the two of you?” Lara asked.

I raised an eyebrow, going for mocking. “Are you jealous?”

Lara plucked up one of the dresses, considered it, and put it on. The black, silk clung to her flawlessly, of course. “No.”

I sighed. “Define ‘anything’.”

“I’ll leave you to define it. What do you think?”

I gave her a once-over. Okay, a twice-over. “It works.”

“And…?”

“No. We’ve never… I tried once. He turned me down.”

Lara pulled the dress over her head and went for another. A pale white that she shouldn’t have been able to pull off with her skin tone, but did anyways. It made her look a little less predatory than the black.

“Do you hurt him… when you feed off him?”

Lara watched herself in the mirror for a moment, shifting, then turned her attention to me.

“Yes, but not as much as you fear. He’s a wizard. He has a lot to give. He is also the winter knight. Technically I am feeding more off Mab than I am of him.”

I watched her wide-eyed. “That… that’s good?”

Lara shrugged. “Dresden is of no use to me as a brainless, will-less thrall. He is obstinate and infuriating, but as you would no doubt say, that is part of his charm.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

Lara took off the dress and lay it in a separate pile. She sipped her flute of champagne and smacked her lips. “Because Dresden loves you. Not as you wish he might, but he does love you dearly. You must know this. If the choice was between you and I, he would leave me a smoldering corpse and face Mab’s wrath… or attempt it, at any rate.”

There was something very much like pity in her eyes and I hated it. I fucking hated seeing it directed at me. Just as I hated how she unbalanced me by mentioning that Harry loved me. I knew that, in a way, but hearing it said out loud that casually, nearly made me tear up. I took my own glass, chugged down the entire thing and refilled it.

“So you’re trying to play nice with me.”

“We are allies now, Lady Molly.”

I sipped on my drink. It was good. Ludicrously expensive, probably. Not that I had any clue. It could’ve cost 20 bucks, for all I knew. “There is that.”

“And now for a much more interesting question,” Lara said.

She walked up closer and I had to fight to stand my ground and maintain eye contact. She stopped just shy of our toes brushing and seemed content to stand there for a little while, waiting to see what I’d do.

“What question is that?” I asked and it came out breathless. Shit.

“Yesterday evening, of course,” Lara said. “We never had the time to have a proper discussion.”

“Oh.”

“You look frightened,” she noted.

“Did you tell Harry?”

“Do you think he would have been able to keep a straight face if I had?”

I thought about it. “Definitely not ”

“Precisely. What I want to talk about is you.” She raised a hand, slowly, as if worried I might get spooked and run off. “And what happened last night.”

I glanced down, taking in the length of her pale, trim, gorgeously curvaceous body. Oh god. I could see the outline of the dark, prominent nipples and the neat, dark curls between her thighs. Stupid see-through lace.

“Do you want me to apologise? Beg? Grovel? You said it yourself. You made an offer. I accepted.

“I would very much like to make you do all those things, elsewhere, under different circumstances. For now, what I want to know is why you accepted.”

I tried to think of an honest answer to that question, but I didn’t find any. Lara cupped my cheek and I shivered.

“Very well,” Lara said. “I’ll tell you my theory. You are jealous because I have what you want, but cannot have. You are confused because you enjoyed watching us and I assume you’re overflowing with catholic guilt.”

I nodded feebly and Lara continued, voice taking on a dark, sultry tone.

“What you liked as much, or perhaps even more, was being shown your place. On your knees in front of your betters, doing as you’re told.”

Some part of me wanted to protest, to snap at her, but I realised even that had the ulterior motive of getting her to - as she’d said - put me in my place. I shivered again, shifting in place, leaning ever so slightly against her hand as she stroked a thumb along my cheek. She watched my eyes as she spoke, as if she could read the truth there. Maybe she could.

“You enjoyed letting go of power, for a while, and letting go of choices, of all the responsibility that comes with it. To simply do as you were told.”

It took me a long while to answer. Lara didn’t seem to be in a rush.

“I did.”

“I’m going to tell you to do something, Molly. But before I do that, I need you to be aware of some things. You decide when things stop. Should you ever feel uncomfortable, you must tell me. There will never be any repercussions for doing so.”

I nodded. Lara smiled. “Good. Take off your clothes.”

My breath escaped my lungs in a stuttering gasp. My mouth went dry. Lara’s smile widened. She raised one eyebrow. Hands trembling, I took the hem of my tanktop and pulled it over my head. Then I unbuttoned my jeans shorts and slid them down my legs. I kicked them off, along with boots and socks, and stood there in my underwear. I did my very best to resist the urge to cross my arms in front of my breasts.

“Perhaps I wasn’t specific enough. Take off all your clothes.”

The words sent a surge of heat flaring down my stomach and… uh. Further south. I reached behind me and undid my bra. At the least second, as it was about to drop, I took hold of it. Watching Lara watching me, I slowly let it slide off me, exposing myself to her inch by inch. The panties went next and then I stood there, naked, in front of Lara Raith. She looked me over and I tried to stand up straight.

“How Dresden turned you down I’ll never understand,” she murmured, drawing a finger along my collarbone. “Such a beauty.”

I realise I probably shouldn’t care that much about compliments about something as vapid as my looks, but it felt pretty damn good then and there.

“Thanks?”

Lara’s finger neared the curve of my breast and I felt the pulse between my thighs in response. Then I remembered Ramirez. Broken then, broken still. I caught her hand.

“Too fast?” she asked.

“No,” I said. “I can’t.”

Lara frowned at me. Then she seemed to connect the dots I couldn’t connect for her or anyone else. “Ah… so it is true. The maiden, indeed. I suppose it makes sense.”

“I don’t want to hurt you… most of the time.”

Her teeth flashed in a brief grin, but her expression soon turned somber again. “By the look on your face, I take it you know from experience what happens when one… initiates pushing the boundaries of what you’ve become.”

“I do.”

“Who?”

“Warden Ramirez.”

“Ah. The next captain of the wardens, I expect. Have you experimented with the boundaries?”

I shook my head. “I don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

For a brief moment, she looked sad. Compassionate, almost. I guess she could identify, in a way. “I am no expert on the fae, but if there is anything I know about them, it is this. The rules cannot be broken, but they can often bend quite flexibly.”

She… might have a point. I looked at her. The mantle hadn’t let me have sex with Carlos, and that was definitely where that had been headed. It had let me watch Harry and Lara. It had let me touch myself and come all over my hand, as Lara watched. What else would it let me do? Where was the actual limit?

There was a knock at the door. “We can talk about it later,” I said.

“Yes. That sounds like a good idea.” 

I reached for my bra.

“No,” Lara said firmly, and I stopped. “Stay where you are.”

I let the bra stay where it was and straightened as ordered as Lara unlocked and opened the door. She exchanged a few words in Italian with someone, and then Isabella came in with her. They kept on talking about… something.

“We are looking for some underwear,” Lara said. “She has someone she wishes to impress and wants to make a good first impression.”

She gave me a significant look. Did she mean? No. She couldn’t. Hope bloomed in my chest and I quickly stomped it down. Hope was stupid. It led to disappointment. It was not worth it. 

“I’d like your opinion on the dresses, too. For the bridesmaids.”

“Of course,” Isabella said. “I cannot believe you’re finally settling down. He must be quite the man.”

“He believes so, at the very least.”

“Oh, they always do. Ricardo is still convinced he’s - how do you say it- a stud.”

Lara smiled. “How is he?”

“Fat,” Isabella said. “But still charming, so I put up with him.”

The shopkeeper went over a selection of dresses, walking up to me like I was a mannequin, and holding each out in front of me in turn. They narrowed it down to two choices, and then Isabella came up to me once more. She scrutinized me closely, eyebrows scrunched up into a single line, and then smiled. “I believe I have just the thing. A moment.”

She left the room and I rounded on Lara. “Are you crazy?”

“Are you wet?”

“What?”

“I don’t believe I’m crazy.” Her gaze lingered on me. “Are you wet?”

I didn’t say it. The answer was embarrassing. I was wet. Just from standing here, at Lara’s beck and call.

“Spread your legs,” Lara said. I did. Lara stepped in close and her whisper brushed along my lips, cool and sweet. “Touch yourself and show me your fingers.”

I reached between my thighs and had to bite back a whimper as I brushed along my clit. I parted my folds and then held up my fingers between us, showing my slick fingertips. Lara took my wrist in her hand, quite gently, and then raised my fingers to her mouth and slipped them between her lips. Her tongue swirled around the digits, hot and wet and I squeezed my legs together on a wave of heat, unable to hold back a low groan. If she’d kept that up it just might have gotten very, very embarrassing.

Lara left me to stand there shivering. No, it wasn’t cold in here, and I was the damn Winter Lady. That excuse didn’t really fly.

“No spontaneous violence,” Lara noted.

I shook my head to clear it. It didn’t make anything better. I need to distract her from my imminent not entirely metaphorical meltdown.

“What did Isabella tell you about me earlier?” I asked.

“She reminisced about the time when her breasts were as perky as yours,” Lara noted, seeming amused.

There was a knock and Lara brought Isabella in with a pair of flirty, pale blue underwear. I hoped Lara was paying, because after I’d put those on, we’d have to buy them.

Lara thanked Isabella and the shop owner left us. She watched me in the underwear for a while, consulted the pile of clothes, and eventually came out with a dress. It was a similar pale blue and the cut was suggestive, but nothing outrageous. For Lara, it was probably a church outfit.

“Wear this tonight,” she said. “and after dinner, I’ll have a gift for you.”

“What kind of a gift?”

The look she gave me made the muscles in my stomach clench. “A taste of what you’ve always dreamed of.”

“And what do you want in return?”

“For starters,” Lara murmured. “I want you to bring me another glass of champagne.”

I frowned. Was she serious? It looked like she was. Well… as far as price went, that wasn’t much. I filled her glass and handed it to her. Lara smiled and stroked my cheek.

“Good girl.”

My eyes fluttered shut for a moment. I didn’t like it. This totally wasn’t going to be a thing.

***

I spent the rest of the stupid day trying to figure out what Lara had meant and it drove me crazy. I should’ve spent the afternoon working, but let’s just say that didn’t happen.

That night, Lara cooked us dinner. She wasn’t as good as the professional chefs she employed, but she was still pretty good.

Tonight, she’d made us lasagna and it was really nice.

“Did you end up finding anything nice?” Harry asked as we settled down by the table.

“I settled on dresses for the bridesmaids,” Lara said. “To be delivered within two weeks.”

Harry nodded a little absently. “That’s good.”

“And Molly’s new outfit, of course. What do you think?”

Harry paused with his glass of wine at his lips. “It’s very nice. Was that all? I’m impressed.”

“There was a little more,” Lara said lightly. “But perhaps the dinner isn’t the place to show that off.”

I crossed my legs under the table. If they’d asked me to, I knew I would’ve. Oh god. I could just picture Harry’s eyes widening, his eyes tracking my movements as… I cleared my throat.

“Gee. Way to overshare, Lara,” I said. “The lasagna was great, by the way.”

Lara smiled and inclined her head. Harry cleared his throat, cheeks turning just a touch pink. Poor guy. “How’d your meeting with… that politician. The asshole.”

“You may need to be more specific,” Lara noted.

“The guy yesterday.”

Lara smiled over the rim of her glass. “Ah. He seemed convinced. A delegation of senior officials will be here in two weeks to discuss things further. I am confident that between the three of us, we can persuade them to see things our way.”

“Lovely,” Harry muttered. “And here I thought we’d save the real evil for the wedding.”

Lara smiled. “Oh, they may yet merit an invitation.”

“Do you think Mab would be upset if I spiked the punch with arsenic?”

Lara patted his hand and I felt something like jealousy twist inside me at the sweet, intimate gesture and how easily it came to them.

“How’d your mission go, Harry?”

He launched into an explanation and it lasted as we finished dinner and moved over to the sofa with our glasses of wine. Lara started up a movie and gave me a significant glance. I took the cue and yawned. “I’ll go to bed, I think.”

Harry almost looked a little disappointed for a moment… or so I told myself anyways. He stood and gave me a warm hug. I very badly didn’t want to let go. We parted and Lara gave me a second hug. Less cozy, but still. She leaned in and whispered in my ear. “You’ll know when.”

I gave her the briefest of nods… and then I went to bed. I lay there for a while with tension churning my stomach as I stared at the ceiling. What was Lara planning? She was vacillating between cruelty and kindness and I wasn’t sure which she liked best. What was she planning, anyway? Would she ask me to touch myself for her again? Would I? I shivered underneath the blankets. Yes. I would.

I felt it, then. Tension gathering in the air, slowly building from outside.

Maybe I shouldn’t go out there. Maybe I should just stay in bed and ride it out. But I was already pushing the covers aside and getting up. I pulled a veil around myself, melding into the darkness, and slipped out into the hallway, following the emotions flowing through the air.

They led me straight back to the living room. Dresden and Lara hadn’t really moved. Well, they were still on the sofa, and Lara was on Harry. They were both dressed, with Lara straddling Harry’s lap as they kissed lazily. His hands rested casually on her hips and hers were running through his hair, making even more of a mess of it. 

I saw Lara glancing in my direction and she broke the kiss, giving Harry a wicked little grin. She shifted her hips, rolling along his, and let out a throaty purr.

“Maybe we should take this to the bedroom,” Harry murmured, though that didn’t stop him from running his fingers up underneath Lara’s dress, raising it up above her hips so that he could trace along the subtle play of muscle at her belly.

“Not if you keep doing that,” Lara said. “I can’t wait. I want to taste you.”

“If you insist,” Harry said. “What about…?”

He seemed to lose his train of thought as Lara slid off his lap and down onto the floor. I found myself sneaking closer, out into the living room itself. From there, I watched Lara unbuckled his belt, dragging his pants and underwear down, and… he was hard.

“She’s likely asleep already.”

“You’d better be right,” he muttered.

“If I’m not, she might just learn a thing or two.”

I could hear myself whimper softly, too quiet and piteous to be heard over the movie running in the background. I rocked gently in place. Half of my instincts told me to turn around and run, the rest to move over there and kneel alongside Lara. To finally touch him - taste him. My hand slipped down the length of my body and I huffed out a breath as I brushed the stiff peaks of my nipples.

“You’re evil,” Harry said.

Lara smirked and took him in her hand, slowly stroking along his length, and Harry leaned his head back against the sofa’s backrest, eyes drifting closed.

“I’ve rarely found that to be an objection, coming from you.”

“Yeah, well. I’ll be paying you back with interest when you get home again.”

Lara chuckled. “Lover, I’m counting on it.”

She leaned in between his legs and, after a few more slow measured strokes, she took him in her mouth. I could feel the heat throbbing between my thighs. My legs wobbled underneath me and grabbed hold of the counter. I didn’t know if I could keep the veil up if I touched myself, but I knew I couldn’t resist any longer. I reached down between my thighs and drew my fingers along the slick lace of the underwear Lara had picked out for me. The friction felt heavenly and it took some of the edge off the desperate, pounding need.

Lara kept stroking him slowly, pulling back enough to show me as she swirled her tongue along the tip. Harry grunted and I watched intently, committing every detail I could to memory. What if I could do what she was doing? I wanted to know how. I wanted to know what made him groan the way he did now, what made him hard, what made him feel good, and Lara clearly knew.

God, I was so wet already, and they’d barely gotten started.

“You’d better keep that trip short,” Harry said, his voice a low growl. He ran his fingers through Lara’s dark locks and gave enough of a pull to make her look up at him. Lara licked her lips, hand still pumping along his length, leaving the tip of his… cock slick and shining with saliva.

“I believe the saying goes that ‘distance makes the heart fonder’.”

“Fuck that,” Harry growled, and a grinning Lara went back to work.

She took him deep into her throat and I had no idea how she managed it without puking, but she did it, and it was pretty impressive. Harry shuddered, tremors running all along his body, the muscles of his legs and belly standing out starkly against his pale skin. He stroked her hair and made a soft noise at the back of his throat. Hungry, a little desperate.

“Close,” he croaked. “Lara-”

I wanted him to say my name like that. I needed it. I stared intently at his face, at Lara working on him, trying to catalogue every expression, every movement. I’d been so intent on watching that I’d stopped touching myself, but seeing him like that, I found myself moving on autopilot all over again. I bit down on my bottom lip, hard, and pressed a finger against my clit through the underwear, trying to catch up, but it was too late.

Harry gasped and bucked slightly, holding his breath as he pulsed in Lara’s mouth, as she slowly stroked him and kept his climax going until he finally let out in a slow, controlled exhale and slumped. Lara glanced my way and then, pointedly, she swallowed.

I was getting close, too.

“Give me a moment, dear,” she murmured, and got up. “I’m going to get some listerine.”

Harry laughed weakly and pulled his pants up before sinking back against the sofa. “Sure… I don’t think I’ll go anywhere for a bit.”

“Good,” Lara said. “You owe me.”

I was close - so close. Just a little bit longer and- Lara walked towards the bedroom and grabbed my arm on the way. I stifled a whimper of protest and stumbled along with her, into her and Harry’s room, and into the bathroom. There, Lara locked the door and pushed me up against it. My veil shattered to shreds.

“Did you enjoy the show, Molly?”

I couldn’t- I didn’t know what to say. How to say it. I could smell Harry on her skin, in her hair.

“If you want another like it, you will answer me,” Lara said, a note of warning to her voice now.

“Yes,” I rasped. “I liked it.”

“Good,” Lara said. “Then perhaps you will like this even better.”

She leaned in, slowing as her lips drew near mine, and halting half an inch away. I could smell him on her breath, and I wasn’t even sure if I liked it, but I knew I wanted it. Before I’d even considered the consequences of what I was about to do, I closed the last of the distance and kissed her. My tongue pressed against her lips, demanding entrance, demanding to feel, to taste, and she let me.

I moaned into her mouth, desperate and feverish with hunger. She might have meant to tease, I don’t know, but she never had the chance. I pressed hungrily into the kiss and my hands dropped down between our bodies and inside the soaked lace of my underwear. Again, I moaned against her lips, as I swiped a finger against my stiff clit. I was tasting Harry - finally - almost as if I’d been there on my knees in front of him, stroking him, feeling him quiver and teetering closer and closer to the edge, before finally succumbing to my efforts, filling my mouth and-

I broke free from the kiss and pressed my mouth into the crook of Lara’s neck, crying out as I came harder than I could ever remember. My legs went watery and I clung on tight as wave after wave of my climax washed over me.

“Such a little slut,” Lara whispered in my ear, and I shivered at the words. “Such a good little slut.”

I meant to protest, but I couldn’t structure words into a sentence just then. I needed a moment.

“Do you want more, Molly?”

I blinked. “Here… now?”

She smiled. “No. Of Harry. Do you want more?”

Shame began to trickle in and ruin the afterglow. “Yes.

“And if I told you that you could have him… and that I’d be willing, happy even, to see just how much of him you could have. That I would help you. What would you give for that?”

“Nearly anything,” I admitted.

“You let me help you.”

I blinked. “What?”

“I have an alliance with you and yours already, Lady Molly. You cannot break your oaths. Harry, on the other hand, is free and willing to do so. I want him on my side. What better way to achieve that?”

“That can’t be everything. It can’t be the only reason.”

“No,” Lara said. “It’ll be a challenge. I’ll enjoy it.”

She grabbed a bottle of listerine and sloshed it around her mouth. I cursed for not taking the opportunity to kiss her again.

“Just to clarify,” I said. “You want to help me test the limits of my mantle and get Harry to help… and all you want from me is what? Me letting you?”

Lara spat into the sink.

“I trust we needn’t have another chat about consent,” she said. “I want more, of course, but those things are not conditions. They’re simply things I want. Things I think you want, too.”

I frowned. “Such as?”

She watched me closely for a moment. “I want your obedience.”

“My…”

“Your obedience. Within the limits of your comfort.”

My cheeks went hot again. I thought back to sitting at her feet, touching myself. To Lara ordering me around the changing room. To just now, being pushed up against the door, kissed and coming all over my hand in front of her.

“And I can walk away if I want?”

“Yes.”

It was far, far too good a deal. There had to be a trap, there just had to, but I hadn’t found it. I’d looked, I’d looked closely, but I just couldn’t see it. The bait was too good. Harry. The chance to finally, finally have a chance, even if it was under… different circumstances than I thought. The downside? Was it even a downside? If Lara had told me here and now to get to my knees and eat her out, I was pretty sure I would. I didn’t even know why.

“I accept. Thank you.”

Lara shook her head, like I’d misspelled a word in class or something. “No. Thank you-”

She trailed off, letting me fill in the last word.

“Thank you, mistress.”

Lara smirked.

Okay. Maybe I liked it. Maybe it was becoming a thing.


	4. Chapter 4

“No,” Harry said firmly. “Absolutely not. It’s morally wrong.”

“It is not,” I said, scowling.

“I beg to differ. I can’t believe you’d even suggest such a thing, Molly. What’s wrong with you?”

“I just like it.”

“I get that, but you shouldn’t. Nobody should like that.”

“What’s so wrong with ‘All the single ladies’?”

“The name,” Harry said, deadpan. “And everything else.”

I bumped my hip against his as we walked around the perimeter, setting up our second layer of defenses. This time, we put it in the middle distance, between the wall and the house, mostly sticking the little pieces of silver into trees or rocks.

“As if you’re one to talk,” I muttered. “I’d do anything for love by Meatloaf. Seriously, Harry?”

“It’s a power ballad about love and a powerful love ballad. It makes perfect sense.”

I shook my head. “I’d forgotten just how old you are.”

It was his turn to glare, but he couldn’t keep much of a straight face. The big sap. He put an arm around my shoulders and gave me a gentle squeeze. The way he had before… before everything. I tried my hardest not to melt into a puddle.

“You should add something by Schubert,” I said. “Mab likes him.”

Harry nodded. “Yeah. Rumour has it he might’ve been Maeve’s and Sarissa’s dad.”

Huh. I hadn’t known that. It explained… a lot, though. Definitely explained why the man had written an entire classical piece dedicated to the journey of the Winter Queen. Harry made a note in a little notepad he carried around, then looked at me again.

“Are you going to be okay hanging out here with Lara while I’m gone?”

I sighed. “For the hundredth time, Harry. I’m a big girl and I can take care of myself.”

“I know. I just wanted to be sure.”

“It’s just for the day,” she said. “If the place is way less cool when you get back, Lara probably killed me and buried me in the woods. See what I did there with ‘cool’?

He rolled his eyes. “I can but aspire towards such lofty heights of comedy.”

We were coming up on the house now, and I noticed I was slowing my steps, trying to draw everything out. “Be careful, okay?”

He smiled. “I don’t think Mab’s going to send me on anything too risky before the wedding.”

“I hope that’s true.”

He winced. “Yeah.”

A car stood idling outside of the Chateau. Harry gave me a last smile. “Take care and remember. Meatloaf. I’d do anything for love. He’ll grow on ya.”

“We will see,” I said.

He chuckled, gave my shoulder a last pat and closed the door behind him. I watched him head down the driveway.. and eventually fade out of sight. I stayed a while longer as I willed my heart to slow down to something resembling respectable. It was becoming unbearable - unacceptable. We’d just gone for a walk, cracked a few jokes, and still I was left obnoxiously, painfully turned on. I had to do something.

I balanced on the precipice for a while, thinking that I’d probably be able to get myself off here and now before anyone else happened by. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, and I set off towards Lara’s office. I needed advice. The mantle pushed me to act and I didn’t resist this time.

The White Court had a lot of stuff going on all around the world and were infiltrating pretty much every aspect of society you could think of. As clever as I had to admit Lara was, you couldn’t do all of that on your own. You needed lackeys. Henchmen. Lara just referred to them as staff.

At the Chateau alone, Lara had about two dozen people who as far as I understood it, interfaced with similar places around the world. Sort of the head office of a company, only with blackmail, murder and espionage. I guess that’s closer to some head offices than we’d all prefer. Anyways, most of the people were busy little worker bees. Lara could afford to pay them very well.

“Lady Carpenter,” said a young man, who I swear she must’ve recruited halfway through college. “Miss Raith requests-”

  
I ignored him and opened the door to Lara’s office and heard him feebly add “privacy for her meeting” before I closed the door behind me. At which point I realised why the poor kid had been so eager to stop me from barging in. Lara was… uh- busy.

She sat leaned back in her chair, head thrown back so that her dark hair cascaded down her back. Her lipstick was slightly smeared, her skirt was pushed up to her waist and her stockings had been pulled down her legs, left to dangle off one foot. Oh, and her secretary sat on the floor between Lara’s spread legs.

The secretary was a pretty young woman with frizzy brown hair that she tucked behind her ears when she was nervous. She looked up at me, eyes widening, and fell back on her ass, wiping at her mouth.

“Oh,” I said stupidly. “Uh. I guess this is a bad time?”

“I-” She seemed on the verge of panic.

“Shush, Emily,” Lara said gently. “Ignore her. You’re not done.”

The succubus parted her thighs and Emily blinked, eyes flicking from me, to Lara, to her sex. She got stuck there and an eager gleam filled her eyes. She licked at lips still slick from her earlier activities, shuffled forward on her hands and knees.

“That’s it,” Lara purred, as the young woman nuzzled her thigh. “Show me that clever tongue of yours.”

“Are you being serious right now, Lara?” I asked.

Lara stroked Emily’s hair. I could see the muscles in the vampire’s stomach tense and tremble as her secretary drew her tongue along the length of her sex, greedily tasting her.

“Quite serious,” Lara noted, voice low and smoky. “It was not I who barged in here, uninvited. So you’re going to stay and you’re going to watch. Perhaps you’ll even learn something.”

I shouldn’t have stayed. I knew that. I should’ve left again and maybe had a chat with Lara later, over dinner, but… she’d told me to stay and now I found my feet rooted to the ground. In fact, I couldn’t take my eyes off the scene playing out in front of me.

It was all too easy to picture myself in a similar position. Lara’s hands twisted in my hair, holding me firmly pressed up against her sex, demanding that I do what I knew deep down was what I was meant to do. That I supplicate myself in worship of her. I shivered. Maybe I should’ve stopped by the shower, set the spray against my clit and made myself come until I’d shouted myself hoarse.

Lara moaned and Emily moaned with her, body moving sensually, as if she received as much pleasure as she was giving Lara. I had to fight hard to keep control, digging my fingers into the fabric of my shirt to keep them there, to stop them from doing anything without me telling them to.

I wondered what it was like. What Lara tasted like. I needed to know. I entertained the idea of pushing Emily aside, or settling next to her, helping her out, kneeling in front of her and worshipping her as she deserved and-

Lara shuddered and then grew still. She laughed softly as Emily, face a mess, wiped at herself with her hand and she rose on shaky legs.

“You’re getting very good at that,” Lara said, teasing a finger along the young woman’s thigh. “I’m afraid I have to talk to Lady Molly now. I’ll make sure you’re taken care of next time.”

Emily nodded eagerly, cast me another shy look, and hurried out. Leaving me alone with Lara.

The Queen of the White Court of vampires beckoned me with a finger and I followed, walking around her desk even as she began to get dressed again. I was mildly disappointed and stared hungrily at her exposed sex until she finally pulled the skirt down.

“Sit,” Lara said, patting her lap.

I frowned. “What?”

“I didn’t make a request, Lady Molly. Sit down.”

Raw, unfiltered desire pulsed through me as her tone shifted to a lower, colder registry, and I settled across her lap.

“So… Uh - What now?”

“We needed to have a conversation. Do you want to have it before or after?”

“Before or after what?”

“Before or after your punishment.”

My heart was beating so hard in my chest I felt it might burst and I could feel echoes of that pulse between my thighs. I shifted in her lap, trying to ease some of the tension, but Lara’s unrelenting gaze made me stop.

“Punishment,” I said.

“Yes. If you expected me to permit you to barge in here as you did without consequence, you were sorely mistaken.”

“Oh. Okay. Maybe… maybe we do the punishment first.”

Lara smiled. “Bend over the desk.”

I did. It a little bit too low and it wasn’t very comfortable, but I lay down across it on my belly, feeling stupid and agonizingly turned on. Was this really going where I thought it was going?

“Take off your pants.”

Seemed like it.

I wasn’t about to deny having had this fantasy a few times, though it had mostly featured Harry… and once a hot young priest who stood in when Forthill was sick. I’m not even going to get into where the rosary beads went. Needless to say, I wasn’t able to look the man in the eye for next to Sundays, and I’d never been so happy to see Forthill again.

I pulled my pants down and the underwear along with them. I figured that’d be the next step, anyways, so why waste time?

“That’s better,” Lara purred.

She laid her hand on the small of my back and rested it there for a moment. Then she hit me. She didn’t really hit me that hard and even if she had, it’d take someone a lot stronger than her to do any actual damage. It was humiliating, though, standing there with my ass bare, legs spread to the point where she definitely saw just how wet I’d gotten just from watching, and how this was making it even worse.

She hit me again and I yelped, again and I whimpered. I tried to keep the noises to a minimum, at first, because fuck Lara and giving her the satisfaction. Soon, though, that plan proved to be a bust. There was a throbbing, demanding itch settling between my legs, crying out for attention, for friction. In any way, shape or form possible.

“Did you like watching Emily eating me out?” Lara purred, punctuating the words with a sharp blow that reverberated down my legs.

“Yes.” The answer came without hesitation, without any of the trouble a simple, yes or no question should’ve brought with it.

“Did you want to take her place? Or mine?”

“Yes. Both.”

“Perhaps if you behave, I’ll let you borrow her or let her teach you how to please me. She is as much of a good little slut as you are.”

I both wanted that very badly, and didn’t. I wasn’t sure.

Lara stroked my ass gently. I felt a little tender, skin sensitive and flushed. “Would you like that?”

I nodded. Lara struck me hard, several times, each blow a sharp meaty thwack. “Speak up, my little winter whore. Would you like for her to teach you?”

I opened my mouth to answer, but she’d resumed gentle, tender strokes and it came out as a moan. I swallowed and tried again. “Yes. Please, yes.”

Lara’s strikes were landing at the bottom of my ass, almost at my thighs, and I found myself trying to spread my legs as wide as I could while still wearing the stupid pants at my knees, silently pleading for more.

Heat was pooling in my stomach, more and more with each sharp, stinging blow, each gentle, stroke of her hands. I whimpered and squirmed, trying to angle myself to get her to touch me.

“I’ll speak to her and we will see what can be arranged for you once you deserve a taste.”

Shit, shit shit. This was really, really messed up. I mean, sure, I’d thought about it as I said, about Harry throwing me over his lap, or the sofa, or the table in his lab, and giving me a spanking for whatever offense he’d dreamed up. It was different in reality, I guess. More painful than I’d thought, but the pain felt so fucking good, and that just made it even worse, even weirder, and I could feel myself somehow getting closer and closer to the edge.

I wasn’t seriously about to come from this, was I?

Lara struck me again and again at a staccato beat that sounded so damn loud that there was no way everyone outside couldn’t hear it. By now, they all knew that I was in here, bent over Lara’s desk with my ass in the air. She might as well have been doing this out in the middle of the office, letting them all watch as she debased me, and how I loved every second of it. Each impact left little shockwaves of pleasurable heat and tingling that shot from her fingers into my skin, streaking to my sex.

I could feel myself dripping down along my thighs, the heat low in my belly twisting and writhing, my legs tensing in anticipation. I whimpered, put a hand against my mouth to stifle it, but it wasn’t enough. I tried to hold back, to maintain control, but that wasn’t what I really wanted, was it? This was all about losing control.

No. Not losing control. Surrendering it.

I cried out against my hand as Lara hit me once more, as the pleasure within me burst the dams and overflowed. My legs trembled and bowed underneath me, leaving me laying flat atop the desk as my sex clenched again and again. The orgasm struck me in wave after wave, first drawing moans, then whimpers, then ragged panting as the overwhelming pleasure finally ebbed.

I couldn’t move. My legs wouldn’t cooperate. Even if they had, I probably wouldn’t have had the energy to go anywhere just then. I felt warm and tingly and… relaxed. Like I’d just sunk down into a hot bath. Lara was stroking my ass gently, almost as an afterthought, and then began to help me pull my pants up. When I’d collected myself enough to turn my head in her direction and give her a bleary look, she patted her lap.

“Sit.”

I did, shambling like a drunk and settling astride her lap. She guided me closer and stroked my back, nails carefully drawn along my spine. I found myself laying my head on her shoulder, and she kept touching me very, very gently.

“I… I didn’t know that could happen… like that,” I mumbled.

She snorted out a laugh, I think. It sounded an awful lot like it. “If you permit me to use my powers on you some day, I can do a great deal more with a great deal less.”

I shivered in her arms. “Some day, maybe.”

She stroked my hair and I wrapped my arms around her, squeezing. “How do you feel?”

I sat up straighter in her lap. “Like I just had the best orgasm of my life.”

“It’s a good start,” she said, completely casual, as if she made people come so hard they almost blacked out every day. Well, I suppose she kinda did. “We’ll see if we can’t improve upon it next time.”

I felt myself clench and shuddered as a little aftershock washed over me. “Next time.”

“Next time,” Lara echoed. “I want to see if you can go down on me.”

“I can do it now,” I said. “Please let me.”

  
She considered for a moment. “No. Not yet. We have business to discuss, but that’ll wait, too.”

I didn’t protest. I just let her hold me and stroke my hair as things slowly returned to normal. I slipped out of her lap and Lara indicated at one of the chairs in front of the desk. I sat down in it.

“Do you feel ready to discuss Harry?”

I started worrying at my bottom lip with my teeth and forced myself to stop. “Yeah.”

“We discussed this briefly, but I need details. I need to know exactly how far you’ve managed to go since your ascension to your new position.”

I winced as I thought back on Carlos. Poor Carlos. I hoped he was doing better and that the White Council weren’t turning him into too much of an asshole.

“I was just about to take off my pants, I think, and…”

Lara made a thoughtful sound. “And yet you’ve gotten them off here, without rampaging through my office.”

That was true. “Guess I didn’t plan on sleeping with you.”

“You wound me deeply, Lady Molly,” Lara said, dryly. “It does seem as though intent matters.”

I tried to tell her that yes, it did, but the words locked up in my throat. Winter Law was Winter’s business. As in, none of hers.

“I grew up in a day and age when women were supposed to remain virgins until the day they were wed,” Lara said. “Rest assured, they found ways around that. I have no doubt we can do the same.”

“Sounds… like a theory. I mean, it’s not as though I’m a virgin in the oldschool sense.”

Lara was too refined to roll her eyes, but it looked like it was close. “A foolish misunderstanding perpetuated by fools.”

“Oh.”

“We will start slowly to ensure there are no further… incidents.” I nodded and some of the remaining anxiety faded away. “On that note, run along. I need to make a call.”

***

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to hang out in the evening with a woman who spanked you until you climaxed earlier that morning, I can now tell you from experience. It’s pretty awkward. You know what makes it worse? Her husband coming home just as you start thinking about maybe asking her for an encore, pondering which of the kitchen implements would make the best paddle.

Smiling brightly, Harry walked into the kitchen, carrying a bag on each hand and depositing both on the counter. He kissed Lara and then began to unpack.

“I got you peaches,” he noted as he put some milk into the fridge. “Why’d you want em?”

Lara’s eyes flicked to me. 

“Oh, just a craving,” she said airily. “Thank you.”

He shrugged. “Sure.”

I sat down by the kitchen counter, wincing at the sting as I did. I was still sore and just as it had all day, sitting down left with me with a dull throbbing ache pulsing through me, reminding me of what had happened. Lara gave me a knowing look and my heart started beating faster. I lowered my gaze.

Reminding of how much I’d loved it.

Harry was still busy stocking up the fridge. He’d only recently decided to trust the thing enough to give it a go. Lara walked up to me and offered me a peach. Numbly, without considering, I took it. She smiled and bit into another of the fruits and licked at her lips as its juice covered them. I dared meet her eyes for a long moment and bit into my own. God, I could only just hold back a soft moan as I did, as the sweet and tart taste filled my mouth, making me think of… I shuddered.

This was getting out of control. She leaned down next to my ear and whispered two words that were more than enough to cement my plans for the rest of the evening. 

“Good girl.”

  
  


***

I woke the morning to find Harry sitting alone in the kitchen, sipping coffee and looking pensive. He didn’t notice me, so I cleared my throat.

“Morning.”

He finally looked up, yawning. “Molls. Hey. Did you sleep alright?”

I had, actually. I’d slept very well. I felt rested and… kinda perky. I needed to get out and do something, and not just because the mantle of the winter later pushed me forwards.

“Yep. You?”

“Must’ve. Lara snuck on in the middle of the night.” He shook his head and shrugged. “Some White Court business to attend to. Back in a few days, or so her note said.”

I’d also received a note, telling me as much, though mine had come accompanied by a list of… suggestions.

I frowned. “She was leaving for business today, anyways, wasn’t she? Does she sneak off like that a lot?”

He thought about it. “Nah. Once or twice. Most of the time, she’s all about staying on schedule.”

I felt a kind of thrill low in my stomach at the possibility of days alone with Harry. I know it’s sad. Don’t judge me. It wasn’t something I’d ever really gotten to do, even back when we’d just been apprentice and master wizard. Mostly because Harry (wisely) had made sure I went back home every night. The few exceptions had mostly been camping trips out of town over weekends where we’d practise less stable magic. In case he was looking, I kept on walking and went past him, pretending to try to decide between the different breakfast options while I actually tried to calm down. 

“Do you have time to talk today?” I asked. “I’d like your eyes on my risk assessment. You know some of these guys better than I do.”

I poured myself a cup of coffee and grabbed a croissant. Harry looked over my way.

“Sure. When’s good for you?”

Anytime. Seriously, literally, any time. I spaced out for a few seconds. Harry seemed worried. Crap. “Um. In an hour or so? I’ll need to check my email and make some calls.”

He smiled wryly. “Being an adult is so much fun.”

I sighed, with a touch of extra drama. “Don’t I know it. I’ll be in my office if you need a shoulder to cry on about Lara,” I said. I put a solemn hand on his shoulder and gave it a pat as I walked on by.

Harry threw a muffin at me. I caught it. It was delicious.

I savoured my victory over the next hour as I went through the surprising amount of paperwork that came with being the Winter Lady and sat back for a while to enjoy the second half of the muffin while I waited for Harry to arrive. That and Lara’s note. Her list. My cheeks felt hot just looking at it.

Could I do it? Would I?

No. The better question was: Would I be able to resist?

The answer seemed skewed more and more heavily towards ‘absolutely not.’

I stood up and reached underneath the dress Lara had instructed I wear, pulling off my underwear and stuffing them down my bag. 

When Harry knocked and came in, I made a show of finishing off the last of the paperwork that I’d saved for the occasion with an exaggerated flourish, then leaned back in my chair and crossed my legs. His eyes tracked the movement for a moment. If only he’d known how much he could see. How much I’d happily show him.

He leaned his hip against the doorframe and snapped his hand to his forehead in a sloppy salute. “Reporting for duty, ma’am.”

I suppressed a smirk. It was both weird and hot to have him call me ma’am. I could get used to that. I pulled out a chair for him next to mine. Did I place it a little closer than needed? Maybe. Maybe I did.

“You know some of these guys better than I do,” I said, and pointed towards the papers scattered across the desk.

Harry made a thoughtful sound and peered at my seating arrangements. He smelled of shampoo and cologne and I fought the instinct to lay my head on his shoulder and bask in the closeness. 

“I can’t believe we’re inviting Ferro,” he muttered. “That guy’s a dick.”

“It would be an insult if we didn’t,” I said. “but we can always hope he decides not to show.”

“At least you put him far away from Vadderung,” he said. “Good thinking. Let’s see about the others… Mab and Titania next to each other. Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

I shrugged. “Lady Sarissa’s idea. She said they’ve been getting along better ever since… ever since the battle.”

“Alright. What about-?”

He was cut off by a shrill, blaring should as the wards we’d spent days setting up were triggered.

We both sprung to our feet.

“What the hell was that?” Harry asked.

“Wards. First layer. Something got through.”

“Shit,” he muttered. “Let’s go.”

We’d set up the main structure of the wards around a replica of the Raith household and the surroundings built in stone, pewter, and other materials. It was a little bit like Harry’s Little Chicago, only more sophisticated, because I’d helped. Thanks to my additions, we could see exactly where the breach in the wards had occurred by the red sand clinging to it. We could also see that a person, shown as a miniature sandman made up of lilac sand, was making its way up towards the house.

“One person?” I asked. “Are they crazy or something?”

Harry shrugged. “Either that or they think they’re strong enough to take us on all by themselves. The Naglooshi did.”

“Call security,” I said. “Meet me outside when you’re done. I’m linking up with the matrix.”

He gave me a look. “I can’t believe I’m getting outdorked by you, Molls. For shame.”

I gave his shoulder a playful shove. “Time’s a-wasting.”

He set off and I reached out for the magic both Harry and I had imbued the spell with, linking my awareness to it. It was dangerous magic, the kind I probably wouldn’t have given a go before becoming the winter lady, but it wasn’t as though it could do much to me now. Linking up to the spell was a little bit like what Harry described his connection to Demonreach to be. Not intellectus, not really, but something like it. Only a lot, lot weaker. I could feel the wards and I could feel where they’d be broken into with a surgical precision. I could also vaguely pinpoint the person or being pushing towards the second barrier. I made a mental note of their position and heading. Then I went to meet up with Harry.

We took the lead, with the soldiers falling in behind us, and ran to meet the invader. I made sure we stayed far enough ahead of everyone that I wouldn’t be giving anyone a Marilyn Monroe impression, and eventually weighed the inside of the dress down with little chips of ice. Just in case.

By the time we reached the secondary, interior barrier, our target had changed course. They were running. I exchanged a look with Harry and we both sped up, beyond the cover of the guard. The hunt was on. My heart pounded and I could feel an anticipation building within me that wasn’t entirely removed from arousal.

Our target was fleeing now, and I sped up to a dead sprint. I could imagine running them down, feeling them struggle and fail, growing limp and helpless beneath me, and I could feel my nipples harden. The added sensitivity only made things worse as Harry and I got within sight of the wall. They were here. Somewhere. They just weren’t visible. I squinted at the surroundings, towards the part where they’d busted through our wards, and saw a flicker in the air.

A veil. It was there for a moment, then it vanished out beyond the wall, beyond the wards, and out of the added perception of the spell. I made a sweep just in case, but there was nobody around except Harry and the security desperately trying to keep up.

I saw Harry about to go after them and for a second I panicked just a bit. “Stop!”

He froze in place as if I’d tased him. He struggled, but found himself locked in place, and it took me a moment to realise I was the one keeping him there and that I was channeling power to get it done.

Woops. I let go and Harry relaxed. He turned to me.

Both of us were breathing hard, neither of us from exertion. His eyes roamed over my body for a while, shameless, unrepentant, lingering on my breasts, my bare legs and suddenly I didn’t care about the intrusion or the security likely to catch up. I just wanted him to keep looking at me like that, and if I needed to start to slowly hike my dress up to make that happen, I would. I unmade the ice chips weighing the fabric down and reached for the hem… That was when Harry snapped himself out of it, and he was back to just being Harry again. His eyes met mine and his brow furrowed with concern. Slowly, I felt the worst of the tension seep away from me, too. I let go of my dress.

“Did you get a look?” Harry asked.

I shook my head. “They were using a veil. A really, really good one, too. Couldn’t get anything through it.”

Harry kicked at the grass. “Well, shit. Human, you think?”

“I’m not sure.”

Harry stared at the wall. “If it was supernatural, it wasn’t very powerful. Or it was powerful enough to hide it, but if it was, why run?”

“Yeah. Why run?”

We spent a while looking at the wards and how they’d been sliced through. It was surgical stuff. Whoever had done it had been really, really good. Fortunately, they hadn’t been good enough. At least their approach meant that fixing the spell back up again wasn’t much work. The security team arrived about at the time we were done and I could see a few exasperated looks and mutters from them as Harry told them what had happened. We walked back to the house.

“The cameras around that spot were down,” Harry said.

Well, then. That narrowed things down. “A wizard, then?”

“Seems likely, but you know what I’ve told you about assuming.”

I rolled my eyes. “I remember.”

He ruffled up my hair. “Good girl.”

I knew he’d meant that as a joke. There hadn’t been anything suggestive in his voice. I’ll blame how keyed up I was from the hunt, I guess, because I felt a spasm of arousal surge through me at those two words.

Damn it, Lara, and damn you Pavlov.

“Sushi for lunch?” I asked.

Harry made a face. “Sure.”

“We’ll do burgers tomorrow,” I promised.

He nodded, clearly approving. “Deal.

Lara had a few awesome cooks in her employ, both to feed her and the staff, and it was something I appreciated whenever I had a craving for good sushi. Within the hour, Harry and I had everything I’d ever dreamed off set up on plates in the kitchen, with rice and bowls with several kinds of sauce for dipping. It was amazing.

Harry pretended to be skeptical of the stuff, but I knew he liked it. He just didn’t want to admit it when he’d started off denouncing it. He had a few pieces left by the time I finished and, just to prove a point, I snuck up behind him and went for one of his salmon rolls. His hand shot out and caught me by the wrist. Grinning, I broke his grip and went for another roll, only for Harry to get out of his seat and interpose himself between me and the food.

“Hey,” I said, feigning affront. “I thought you didn’t like sushi.”

He grinned and I could see some of the excitement from the hunt still lingering in him. “Doesn’t mean I’m gonna let you steal mine.”

“Wanna bet?”

I went for it again and, dodging under his arm, and snatching up a roll. I was just about to pop it into my mouth when he caught my wrist. We struggled for the food, back and forth across the kitchen, until I finally fell back against the sink, dragging Harry with me. My hands ended up pinned above my head to the wall, with Harry pressing up firmly against me.

“Yield.”

My head spun. I could feel him everywhere. I could feel him, hard, pressing against my stomach. I could feel his breath, cool and crisp, against my neck. His feelings were thick in the air. Excitement, hunger, need. For me. They washed over me, mixing with my own desire, and I couldn’t hold back a whimper. Then a new emotion broke through the others as Harry’s eyes widened. Fear. Followed swiftly by shame.

For a little while, he teetered on the edge, torn between the conflicting emotions and I had to resist the urge to wrap my legs around him to keep him there. He was so close. If I just shifted a little, I’d feel him rub up against-

I felt my control slip.

Then Harry blinked and most of the wild, hungry energy around him vanished.

“Sorry,” he said. “That… got a bit out of hand. I keep forgetting how strong you are now. You alright?”

He eased back and I immediately missed the feeling of having him that close. My fingers twitched and I wanted very, very badly to grab hold of his shirt, wrap my legs around him, and just keep him right where he was.

It took me several long seconds of concentration as I stood there, staring, breathing raggedly. Harry must’ve known what went through my head then, but he didn’t let on. Another few seconds passed before I could pretend I hadn’t noticed anything happening, either.

I held up the roll and popped it into my mouth. “I’m alright. I’ve got this.”

Harry shook his head. “You’re lucky I don’t like that stuff.”

“Does that mean I can eat the rest?”

He eyed me. I grinned.

“Thought so.”

He frowned and I felt more of the same emotions as before. Shame, embarrassment, guilt.

“It’s fine,” I told him firmly. “Like you said. Things got a bit out of hand. It happens.”

“The winter mantle’s a bitch, sometimes,” he muttered.

“Tell me about it. At least my mantle isn’t as strict as you were back in the day.”

“No ice water?”

“Not like that, no.” I winked at him. “and at least it lets me get myself off.”

Harry’s eyes widened and I was satisfied to know that along with the embarrassment and amusement, there was a little spike of arousal, too.

“I said that part as a joke. You knew that, right?”

I snorted. “Duh. I jilled off plenty back then, too.”

“That’s not as comforting as you think it is, Molls.”

I waved off his complaint. “Don’t be a prude.”

He smiled and pulled me into a hug. This time, it was wholly platonic and I managed to shut down the voice at the back of my head that constantly pushed and cried out for more. I enjoyed the moment as long as it lasted.

“What do you say about a movie later?” Harry asked.

That… sounded amazing. “Sure.”

Harry nodded. “Did you have anything else you wanted me to check with the guest list?”

“I’ll go over it on my own first, but maybe tomorrow?”

“You’re the boss.”

“I don’t mind it when you’re the boss, sometimes,” I said and immediately regretted it. Sheesh. Act more obvious, Molly, why don’t you?

Harry blushed a little and chose not to comment. “See you at dinner?”

“Gotcha.”

I spent the rest of the afternoon working, trying desperately not to think of what had happened in the kitchen, or of hanging out with Harry later. I had mixed success. Especially when I went through the next step of Lara’s list, leaning back in my chair and pulling the dress up along my thighs. Then I spread my legs and pointed the camera of my cell phone between them, taking a picture. I sent it to Lara. It was only a few minutes before I got a response.

_Is it me you are wet for, my little winter whore?_

Arousal surged through me and I squeezed my thighs together on it, but it only barely took the edge off. I couldn’t lie. Not even in text messages.

_You and Harry._

_What do you call me?_

_Mistress. I’m so wet for you and for Harry, mistress._

I couldn’t believe I’d said that. Written it. Whatever. It amazed me as I stared at the phone for the next two minutes, waiting for her response, re-reading what I’d already written.

_Good girl. Do not touch yourself until you have finished the next item on the list._

I squeezed my eyes shut, hips shifting in my seat. I needed to come so very badly. I knew that if I didn’t, I’d be like this all night, hypersensitive to every single flicker of emotion, every touch. But like with the next item on the list Lara had mentioned, which was specified to be done tonight no sooner than nine o’clock, I resisted the temptation to cheat. I sent back another message, just to be sure.

_Yes, mistress._

From that point onwards, there was radio silence from Lara, and I managed to get a little work done as I suffered until evening. Harry and I had dinner together and then we moved over to the sofa and the TV.

“What’re we watching?” I asked.

“A clear and present danger,” Harry said, giving the remote a click, and starting up the movie.

“Guess that’s what I get for letting you pick. I figured you’d pick Star Wars.”

“It’s got both Harrison Ford and James Earl Jones, so it’s not that far off.”

“It’s such a dad movie.”

Harry opened his mouth, then seemed to change his mind about whatever he was about to say. He smiled. “I am a dad, Molls.”

“Yeah, but you know what I mean.”

“I do, and I’m deeply wounded by what you’re implying.”

I took a handful of popcorn and settled back into the couch.

“I’m sorry about earlier,” Harry said after a while.

“I told you, it’s fine. I know what it feels like, with the mantle pushing you.”

He winced. “Still…”

I moved a little bit closer on the couch and lay my head on his shoulder. He went tense for a moment, but relaxed by slow degrees. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and began to slowly thread his fingers through my hair, nails scratching my scalp.

“It’s fine,” I told him, again. “Don’t worry. Let’s enjoy your crappy dad-movie.”

He grumbled a little, but we stayed that way for the rest of the movie, Harry continuously, gently touching me. It was sweet and comfortable, and it made me feel pretty weird about how badly it turned me on. I crossed my legs tight and tried to keep my mind off the searing, roaring need pulsing through me, tried to keep myself from squirming around. I must’ve been shivering, though, because Harry got me a blanket and wrapped it around me. That didn’t make my problem any better, let me tell you. By the time the movie was over, I kept the blanket wrapped around me just so he wouldn’t see the damp spot on my dress.

We said goodnight and I made a beeline for my room. Then I followed the instructions Lara had left me and opened my bedside drawer. I stared for several long seconds at what she’d left for me.

It was a dildo.

Uh. It was a bit weird looking. Sort of like… it had been modeled after the real deal.

I considered it for a few more moments, maybe to pretend I was considering whether or not to do it, but I knew deep down I would.

I pulled out the toy. I lay back on bed. I sent Lara a picture of it nestled between my thighs… and oh god, I slipped it inside, and it took a bit of doing even considering how wet I was, but that just made it better somehow. I sent her another after I’d finished. It hadn’t taken long.

The response was quick to arrive.

_Good girl. Now you’re a step closer to knowing what he feels like inside of you._

Did she mean? Oh. Oh god-

So… apparently, shotgun orgasms were a thing.

I lay there whimpering in the aftermath for a while before remembering I should probably send her a reply.

I frowned at my cell phone. It was dead. It had been well above half charge just a moment ago. I sighed and threw it aside. Piece of junk. I’d get a new one tomorrow. Right now, I was floating on top of the world, and I wasn’t about to let something little like that ruin my good mood.

I fell asleep smiling and I didn’t realise that it would all be downhill from that point onwards.

***

My phone still didn’t cooperate the next morning. Fifteen years ago, my old Nokia phone could’ve survived a nuke, but this modern piece of junk had apparently just decided to quit on me.

I used the landline and ordered a replacement before going to breakfast. I spent the rest of the day obsessively going over the crumbs left behind by the unexpected guest. A scrap of cloth that I tracked using thaumaturgy, without any results whatsoever, and a note carved into the stone wall outside the Raith’s lands, like we’d been visited by frickin’ Zorro. Just four words.

‘You cannot have him.’

The first dead end and the veil combined hinted towards a wizard, or someone with that skill set. The second, I guess, someone who didn’t want the whole Raith-Winter alliance to happen. It was probably good I had an alibi.

Harry went out and hit some contacts and I spent the whole day locked up in my office trying to figure it out. I didn’t realise how long I’d been sitting there until it had gone dark and someone knocked at my door. I’d forgotten lunch. Just like when I’d first…

I shook myself, plastered on a smile, and left the work undone. For now.

I didn’t care who was after Harry. It didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was that I wouldn’t let anyone hurt him.

We had dinner together and it was nice, having him all to myself, to hang out the way we used to… but I couldn’t keep myself from thinking about whatever it was that threatened us.

I lay in bed for a long time that night, twisting and turning, looking towards the door to the other bedroom, and the drawer where my busted old phone lay.

When I woke up the next morning, I felt terrible. I lay there for a long time with the shrill scream of the alarm clock in my ears before I finally got up. A soothing cold washed over me as the winter lady’s mantle took away the weariness and doubt and let me get going to do what needed to be done. I showered, then headed straight to work.

I ordered pizza. Two dozen pies, every day, until after the wedding. Enough to keep Toot-toot and his guard on duty around the perimeter walls. I interrogated whatever of the little folk were around before, but none of them had seen anything useful.

Harry cornered me in my office sometime late-ish, going through the guest list and the threat assessment, making notes and comparisons, putting together connections. I was about an hour away from beginning to construct my own crazy person’s cork board with little strings connecting pictures, by that point.

“Molly,” he said, voice soft. “Hey.”

I looked over to him, brows furrowing. I didn’t like his tone. That gentle tone you used when talking to a scared animal or someone you thought might lash out.

“What’s up?”

“I was about to visit dreamland,” he said. “I just thought I’d check in with you.”

“You didn’t have to.”

“I know. Still wanted to, though.”

He still stayed in the door. Away. I blinked and looked around me. There was ice forming here and there on the surfaces of the room. The glass of the windows were rimed over.

“I’m just finishing up,” I told him.

“Any idea how long that’s going to take?” He asked.

I felt anger rise within me. Parts were mine, parts weren’t. I was not his student any longer. I was the Winter Lady. I was his liege, and he would obey me, not the other way around. I was not about to allow myself to be coddled like- I viciously forced the emotions down before they bled over and caused something unfortunate.

“As long as it takes,” I said.

When he spoke again, it was in that same tone of voice. Gentle. Worried. Like I was standing on a ledge.

“Just one more question, Molly. When was the last time you ate?”

I thought back. I’d had breakfast, right? No… I’d gone straight to work. Then I’d dealt with the pixies, then more pixies, then back to the house, then to the Nevernever. I hadn’t eaten since… last night. Nearly 24 hours.

I couldn’t feel the hunger, but now that I was paying attention and pushing down the winter lady’s mantle and its influence, I felt woozy. Nauseous.

“A while ago,” I admitted.

“Come on,” Harry said. “There’s left-overs on the stove. I’ve kept it warm for you.”

I stared back at my work, then looked at Harry. I could’ve come clean with him then and there. Told him about what I was feeling, how it was affecting me, but I didn’t. Because I didn’t want more of his pity. I couldn’t take it.

I went with him. I ate. I returned to my room, showered, brushed my teeth, and lay down in bed. I extended my senses and the moment I felt that he’d fallen asleep, I went back to work.

Harry was mine. My knight, my boss, my friend. I would not permit any harm to come to him. The cost was irrelevant. 

I spent the next day in the Nevernever where it connected to the Raith properties, making sure things were sewn up tight, and didn’t return until I was sure they were. By then, dawn had already arrived, and I had enough time to shower and get dressed before Harry woke up. I made sure to show up after he did, made sure my hair was properly sleep-tousled, and spent enough time with him at breakfast to keep him from worrying. Harry saw straight through me.

“When was the last time you slept?”

I tried for a playful smile. “Well?”

“No. Just slept.”

“Time is a tricky thing, Harry.”

Harry set his cup of coffee down and looked me dead in the eye. I couldn’t suppress a shiver.

“Thrice I ask and done,” he said, his voice low and dangerous. “When was the last time you slept?”

Something jerked and tugged at me, dragging at my throat, my tongue, almost pulling the words out of my lungs. I could remain quiet… or answer truthfully.

“The night Lara left,” I said. “Three nights ago.”

“Thought so,” Harry muttered. “Listen, Molls-”

I grabbed him by his shirt, hauled him out of his seat, and shoved him up against the fridge. Some of the cutesy magnetic tags we’d been using to create words and sentences with fell pattering to the floor.

“No. You listen to me, my knight,” I found myself hissing. “You do not order me around. You do not compel me. You obey. You do as I wish, as I desire. Am I clear?”

Harry was strong. Both physically and in terms of his magic. Even as the Winter Lady, I knew he was dangerous to me, because our power came from the same place… but we both knew he wouldn’t - couldn’t fight me.

He was entirely within my power. I could hurt him. I could take my pleasure from him. As much as I’d be able to get before something in me snapped and I threw his used up body away.

And I didn’t think he’d have it in his heart to fight me.

I suddenly felt sick. I let go and backed off, keeping my mouth firmly shut just so I wouldn’t throw up. I’d just- I’d almost-

“Molls-” Harry whispered, voice soothing, gentle. “Listen to me, okay?”

I didn’t. I couldn’t. I needed to get away. I’d almost hurt him. He was reaching out a hand, trying to touch me, and I didn’t deserve it. I fled, ignoring him as he called out for me.

I slept a few hours that afternoon, passing out on my desk, but I woke up from something that could’ve been a wet dream, could’ve been a nightmare, but felt like both. I worked through the night and left the chateau in the morning to avoid Harry. Mab had a few minor chores for me to do, and doing them meant not facing up to what I’d almost done, so I did them just so that I wouldn’t have to think, wouldn’t have to be Molly.

I returned home again, dazed and tired, and sat in the shower. Only there did I allow myself to cry, letting the tears mingle with the water, bawling my eyes out like I hadn’t since I’d helped Harry kill himself.

I went to bed feeling hollowed out and raw. Like something had gone missing.

It was past midnight when Lara arrived. I wasn’t sure how much beyond late-o’clock and I’d stopped looking a while ago because I knew it’d just make it even harder to actually fall asleep.

I could feel her when she entered the house, somehow. I don’t know how to describe it. I just knew. I lay in bed for a long while, listening for her footsteps out in the hallway, but they never came. I lay for a while longer, pretending like I wasn’t about to do what I knew I would. Then, finally, I put on my pyjamas and slipped out of my room.

I found Lara in the little dojo set next to the garden and pool. She was standing in the middle of the room with a wooden sword in hand, going through slow, steady motions. Her eyes were closed, but her feet were sure. I watched her for a few moments. Her form was perfect. Graceful, smooth, practised. Nothing flashy or showy. I didn’t know a lot about swordsmanship, but I’d learned a little from dad and a little from mom - my new mom. That is to say, Mab.

Lara didn’t look my way, but her voice rang out clearly. “Pick up a sword or leave.”

I blinked. Then I looked around until I found the practise weapons and picked one up for myself. Lara barely gave me a moment before she attacked.

I’d had enough of the basics drilled into me that I didn’t freak out or freeze at the sword being whipped at my face. I brought my own sword up and blocked the vertical slash, moving back for space. Lara pressed, thrusting as if she was wielding something more like a rapier, blade slithering past my guard to strike me in the ribs.

She took a step back, teeth showing as she smiled.

“Why are you here, Molly?”

I attacked, combining the training dad had given me and the ferocity, speed and power the mantle of the winter lady gave me, and it took Lara two seconds to beat me. She dodged the first blow and then she stepped in close, blocking the second and sweeping my legs out from under me. I landed on my ass. It probably didn’t look or sound too dignified.

Lara offered me her hand, and I took it, letting her help me back to my feet. Her fingers were cool and soft. I shivered and remembered why I’d come.

“I- I want... “ I tried to find the words to explain, but they wouldn’t come. “I need- I- I need-”

Lara tilted her head to one side, watching me flounder, clearly without any intention of putting me out of my misery. I drew in a deep breath and tried again… and failed.

I was trembling. Anticipation or fear, or both, I didn’t know. I knew what I wanted, knew what I needed. I just had to say it to make it real and some stubborn part of me refused to utter the words. It wasn’t Winter. It was me.

Damn.

If I couldn’t say it, I’d just have to show her instead.

I let go of the sword and got down on my knees.

The corner of Lara’s mouth twitched, but besides that, she kept her expression all business.

“You’re sure?” She asked.

I nodded.

“I want you to tell me.”

Damn it. 

I tried. I really, really did. The words got stock in my throat.

I reached out and set my hands at Lara’s hips, but as I went for the button of her jeans, she caught my hand.

“No. Tell me.”

I gritted my teeth. “I want to… I want to repay you what I owe you.”

She shook her head. “Try again.”

I felt something inside me crack and break. My voice came out in shredded tatters, raw and weak. “Help me.”

Her expression softened. “How do you want me to help you, Molly?”

I swallowed what was left of my pride and dignity. “I want to please you. Please. I need it.”

She let go of my wrist and I made a noise I really wish hadn’t been mostly a whimper. I unbuttoned her jeans and tugged at the fabric, dragging it down her legs. I stared at her exposed sex. There was a light dusting of close-cropped dark curls above pink folds, wet and inviting. I licked my lips and felt myself throb as I took her in. It wasn’t as though I hadn’t seen another woman naked before, but I definitely hadn’t seen one in this kind of a setting. Up until I’d met Lara, I hadn’t ever really noticed women like I was now. I couldn’t even wait until they were all the way down before I pressed in.

I had some idea what I was doing, but not much. I mean, I knew what I liked - kinda - so I went with that. I started off with a broad, greedy swipe of my tongue, moaning at the taste of her. I could hear her chuckling softly to herself and though it wasn’t mocking - probably - I still took it as a challenge. I was going to rock her frickin’ world. I grabbed hold of her ass, digging my nails in as I squeezed it, and for the record it was just as good as it looked. Then I pressed my tongue in deeper, feeling her stiffen when I touched it to her clit. Her breath caught and I allowed myself a moment of feeling smug.

Then I got back to work and lost myself in her. Her taste, her scent, the soft little hitches of her breath each time I flicked my tongue across her clit, the sensation of her fingers in my hair, at first stroking, then clutching.

The Winter Lady would never, ever put herself in a position like this. Prostrate in worship, comfortable in weakness, happy in submission. But Molly would.

Above me, tension gathered in Lara’s body. I could feel her muscles grow taut and then she cried out raggedly, pulling at my hair to the point where it hurt wonderfully, before relaxing once more. I pulled back just enough to look up at her.

She patted my cheek. “Stay where you are.”

I did, watching with some regret as she pulled her back back on, and trying to stay calm as she walked behind me. She settled there and guided me back until I sat between her legs. Her hand trailed along my hip and down the outside of my thigh.

“Do you want me to take care of you?” She asked.

My heart pounded heavily in my chest. I could feel my pyjama pants sticking to me between my legs, hot and slick, and achingly oh so sweetly.

“Yes. Yes, mistress.”

“Good girl.”

She went as far down my thigh as she could reach and then back up again, skimming along the inside this time, and I parted my legs for her. She slowed down the closer she got, which I guess I should’ve seen, because I’d always known she was evil, and I had to fight not to try to grab her hand and guide it where I needed it. She went up along my leg and my hips, up under the pyjama shirt and goosebumps broke out across my stomach as she teased her fingers along the top of the pyjama pants.

“Tell me you’re sure,” she purred in my ear.

“I’m sure,” I gasped. “Please.”

Her hand slipped down my pants. Her fingers brushed past trimmed curls, to hot syrupy-slick skin, and I made a sound that was thoroughly embarrassing. God… it had been so long since anyone else had touched me. I bucked helplessly against Lara’s fingers and moaned out loud when she slipped two inside of me.

And nothing happened. No violence, no blackout. Nothing.

“See?” Lara whispered. “You needn’t worry.”

She took my earlobe between her teeth and bit down and I groaned, rocking against her fingers, urging them to move faster, deeper, just more. I needed more. I needed everything.

“You can let go,” Lara continued. “My little winter whore. Let go and let yourself feel.”

“If you make a reference to Frozen, I swear-”

Lara pressed her palm against my clit, ground it, and I suddenly couldn’t speak, could barely breathe, and all I managed to vocalise was another helpless moan.

“Imagine what else you may be able to enjoy,” Lara purred. “You may not be able to take a man inside your tight little cunt, there are other options, as I’m sure you can imagine. Have you imagined it?”

I was getting close. It had been so long and Lara knew my body as well as I did, knew just how to touch me, when, how hard. I could barely get enough air, but she’d asked me a question, and I wanted to answer.

“Yes,” I gasped. “A few times. I want to know what he feels like inside. I don’t care where - I just need-”

“That’s my good little slut,” Lara whispered in my ear. “Imagine it. The toy inside your cunt and his cock up your ass. Imagine how full you’ll feel.”

I imagine it. The both of them holding me up between them, keeping me trapped between them, aloft and helpless as they pounded me. Oh god, oh god, oh god.

“Are you going to come for me?”  
  


“Yes. Yes. I’m so, so-”

I felt my climax draw closer and closer, each thrust of her fingers, each press of her palm or thumb against my clit, each heated breath against my skin. It drove me onwards, towards the cliff and off it, spiraling helplessly into empty air as I cried out and shuddered and spasmed in Lara’s arms. My eyes snapped shut and I was left blind, with the pleasure roaring over me, subsuming me, drowning me. I clung on to Lara like a lifeline, coming up for air, gasping and in greedy, desperate lungfuls.

Lara showed no mercy. She kept thrusting her fingers inside of me even as I spasmed on them, even as I writhed in her embrace, even as I whimpered and clutched at her. The waves crested and I fell under again, making a low, whining sound in my throat as the second climax sent me under once more.

I didn’t black out, but reality faded into a pleasant, meaningless blur for a while. When I came to, I felt dazed, warm and like my skin was humming somehow. My clothes stuck to my body with sweat and… well, other stuff.

“Talk to me,” Lara said as she eased her hand out of my pants and lay it on my stomach.

“Mmm…” I’d meant to actually say something, but that’s what came out. “That… that was nice.”

“Nice?” Lara asked wryly. “I must admit I was aiming higher.”

“Sorry,” I mumbled. “I’m feeling a bit loopy. It was amazing.”

“Good. Come with me.”

“Thought I just did,” I mumbled, as she got to her feet and pulled me with her.

“Do you want me to carry you?” She asked.

I kinda did, but I’ve always been stubborn. “I can walk.”

Lara led me to the living room and started up a movie. I never noticed which. She settled next to me and guided me to lay down with my head in her lap.

“Don’t fall asleep yet,” Lara said.

I wanted to do just that, very badly, but I blinked my eyes quickly and looked up at her.

“Yes, mistress.”

She smiled a little. “Not now. This a conversation between Molly and Lara.”

“Oh. Okay. What’s up?”

“You’re exhausted.”

“I wouldn't be if you let me sleep,” I said. “I’ll live.”

“You are getting reasonably adept, for one so young, at lying with the truth, but I would take it as a courtesy if you didn’t attempt it with me. I find it rather insulting.”

“Then maybe you should stay out of my business.”

She just looked at me. Shit. I sighed and started over. “I haven’t slept well. Since you left, pretty much.”

“Was it because of the attack?”

“Yeah. Someone is after Harry, and I won’t let them hurt him.”

“I expected as much. Did you do what you could to protect him?”

I frowned. “I tried-”

“Did you do your best?”

I grimaced, but forced myself to answer. “Yes.”

“That is good enough. You do what can be done. We prepare our defenses, we ready ourselves and our allies, and if we do not know who the threat is by the time of the wedding, we’re ready for when we find out this time around.”

“But-”

“Shh.” Lara stroked my hair and I allowed myself to relax for the first time in days. “That’s a good girl.”

“I thought we weren’t playing any more,” I mumbled.

I could sense a smile in her voice. “I forgot myself. Sleep. Whatever problems we have to face, we can face them in the morning.”

I closed my eyes… and sleep didn’t take long to come for me.

The next morning, I apologised to Harry. I hugged him. I told him the truth: Most of it, anyways.

Then I went online… and ordered a pair of iron shackles.


End file.
